UAE’s first female aircraft engineer creates a mangrove forest

By planting mangroves in the UAE, the first female aircraft engineer from the Emirati nation is making a difference on the ground in addition to breaking new ground in the traditionally male-dominated aviation industry.

Eng Suaad Al Shamsi, a senior project manager with Etihad Airways, came up with a plan to reduce the airline’s carbon footprint and combat climate change when the nation declared its intention to plant 100 million mangroves by 2030.

“It came to my mind: ‘Why don’t we plant a mangrove and people can adopt it?’” says Al Shamsi, who is a mother of two young boys.

Al Shamsi planted the first tree in the Etihad Mangrove Forest, which was established on Jubail Island in Abu Dhabi, in February of last year.
Thousands of mangrove trees have been established since then.

Over the course of its lifespan, a mangrove tree will absorb more than 300kg of carbon dioxide, or 12.3kg per year.
“We have an application through which people can adopt a mangrove, visit the mangrove, ‘chat’ with it and see how it’s growing,” she says.

Workers unloaded hundreds of seedlings from a truck, placed them in baskets, and carried them through the swamp on the day The National toured the mangrove forest.
The saline tolerant bushes were then planted after they waited until the water level had dropped in the afternoon.
Mangroves are grown on the property throughout the year, with the exception of the extreme summer months of May and July.