The educational-urban-afforestation programme will engage governmental schools across all seven Emirates.

Jamil Khan, Senior Reporter

The latest phase of ‘Planting a Greener Future’ initiative started by Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) has been launched with the aim of planting 350 indigenous trees over the next year.

The drive launched on Arab Environment Day in collaboration with McDonald’s UAE organised a series of workshops for students in government schools all over the UAE.

The educational-urban-afforestation programme will engage governmental schools across all seven Emirates and deliver a robust educational programme designed to prepare students for the future and adopt a responsible and ethical approach to the environment.

Aligned with a number of national and international sustainability strategies, ‘Planting a Greener Future’ compliments several of the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (UN SDG) on a national level and it supports the “Sustainable Environment and Infrastructure” chapter included in UAE Vision 2021 national agenda.

Habiba Al Mar’ashi, Chairperson at Emirates Environmental Group, highlighted the importance of Urban Afforestation by saying: “Planting indigenous trees in urban areas across the UAE is crucial to improving the environmental ecosystem and infrastructure. Our ambition is to not only make strides in meeting the targets of UAE Vision 2021’s Sustainable Environment and Infrastructure chapter but also to supporting the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals. We are proud to be working alongside our long-standing partner, McDonald’s UAE, to educate the future generation and play an active role in improving energy conservation, air pollution management, carbon sequestration and biodiversity enhancement.”

A senior official at McDonald’s UAE added, “Over the past two decades, we have worked closely with EEG to identify meaningful ways to contribute to our local environment and take a more proactive approach to sustainability. With the latest phase of ‘Planting a Greener future’, we’re excited to take our partnership to the next level today to support the UAE’s sustainability goals by empowering the next generation.”

He added, “This initiative is part of a much larger effort that McDonald’s UAE is undertaking to give back to the local community. The environment and sustainability has always been important to us and since launching in the UAE 1994, we’ve been committed to improving things for our local community.”

The move is aimed at increasing green spaces in schools, educating the students on issues pertaining to climate action, developing habitats within urban environments for local flora and fauna, to create nature based solution to combat issues such as air pollution, desertification and urban heat island effect.

A curriculum of interactive educational workshops under the theme of “Elements Define Us” inspired by Fire, Air, Water and Land, will each address a specific issue varying from food security, renewable energy, plastic pollution and climate change.

The programme, which will run until Oct 2020, comes off the back of the success of previous phases of the programme. First launched in 2015, ‘Planting a Greener Future’ has so far reached 2,800 students across 14 government schools and delivered measurable impact to the environment. Through the planting of 760 indigenous trees, the program has so far restored 7,000m2 of land and, upon maturity, will help mitigate 4.5 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Recently, Emirates Environmental Group, EEG, awarded the champions of the ‘Recycle-Reforest-Repeat’ project.

Habiba Al Mar’ashi addressed the champions of this programme for their diligence and efforts and awarded them with certificates of participation and with a sapling of an indigenous tree to be planted in their name, under EEG’s ‘For Our Emirates We Plant Initiative’.

A special token of appreciation was given to 66 student members, 33 corporate organisations and 29 academic institutions.

Al Mar’ashi said, “The project witnessed an increase in participation from 61 participating entities in 2016 to 246 participating entities this year. In addition to that, there was an astounding increase in collections over the last few years, the participants collectively deposited 178,806 kg of paper in 2019 a huge increase from the collection of 17,639 kg of paper in 2016.”