Apple announces new partnership to protect mangroves in Raigad district

Apple on Friday announced a new partnership with the Applied Environmental Research Foundation and Conservation International to protect the mangrove ecosystem and the livelihoods that depend on it in the Raigad district of Maharashtra.

Apple awarded a grant to the Applied Environmental Research Foundation (AERF) in 2021 to work with the local community to protect a 2,400-hectare mangrove forest in the region. The region “provides an important buffer against the most dangerous impacts of climate change,” Apple has said. 

“Through the partnership, AERF will enter into conservation agreements with local community members, offering support in exchange for conserving and protecting the mangroves on their land,” it said.

The goal of the partnership is to help transition the local economy to one that relies on keeping mangroves intact and healthy. 

“The fight against climate change is a fight for the communities around the world whose lives and livelihoods are most threatened by the crisis, and that’s where we’ve focused our work — from Colombia to Kenya to the Philippines,” said Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives. 

“Our new partnership in India continues this momentum, helping a community benefit economically from the restoration of the mangrove forests that protect against the worst impacts of climate change,” Jackson added.

Through the new partnership, AERF will also engage Conservation International to verify the climate benefits of the mangroves, accounting for the carbon sequestered in both the trees and soil. 

Apart from protecting coastal communities from climate impacts like the unpredictable monsoons and rising tides that threaten the Raigad district, mangroves act as carbon sinks that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it in their soil, plants, and other sediments. 

“To collaborate with Apple and Conservation International is a great opportunity to explore how mangrove conservation and community benefits can go hand in hand,” said Dr Archana Godbole, director of AERF. 

“Though mangrove conservation issues are diverse and different in each place, here in our project area, opportunities are also many. Training our young, enthusiastic team as well as local communities for blue carbon will surely help us travel a long way to achieve mangrove conservation in this vibrant coastal area along the Arabian Sea,” Dr Godbole added.

With support from Apple, Conservation International’s blue carbon finance project in Cispatá Bay, Colombia, “adequately and accurately” measured the carbon that mangrove trees store in their trunks and leaves and what they sequester in their soil. 

“This improved accounting enables communities to benefit from the full economic value of the ecosystems they sustain. AERF will apply the learnings from the Colombia project to their work in Raigad, with plans to establish a model that can be scaled across India,” Apple said.

Apple’s environmental efforts

Apple’s grant also supports the restoration of mangroves across a 50-hectare area where they have degraded and protecting the existing mangroves in the area. It also supports purchasing and distributing portable bio-stoves, enabling people to cook without cutting down mangroves for firewood. 

“Apple will continue to focus on communities most impacted by climate change as it pursues its environmental goals. Through the company’s $200 million Restore Fund, launched last year with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs, Apple will make investments in forestry projects that aim to remove carbon from the atmosphere while generating a financial return for investors,” it said. 

The tech major also provides under-resourced local communities worldwide with access to renewable energy through its Power for Impact program.

“All of these efforts are part of Apple’s broader goal to become carbon neutral across its entire global supply chain by 2030,” it said.

It has also made significant progress toward its goal to eliminate plastics from its packaging by 2025, with plastics accounting for 4 per cent of packaging in 2021. Since 2015, Apple has reduced plastic in its packaging by 75 per cent, it further added.

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