BIC’s green ticket for planet

TDT | Manama                      

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Wael bin Nasser Al Mubarak, the Minister of Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture, yesterday praised the Green Ticket initiative by Bahrain International Circuit (BIC), The Oil and Gas Holding Company and Mercantile & Maritime to support the cultivation of mangroves in Bahrain.

This came during a meeting of BIC Chief Executive, Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa and nogaholding Group Chief Executive Officer, Mark Thomas at the Ministry’s headquarters in Manama, where fund for planting the mangroves was handed over.

The Undersecretary of Municipal Affairs, Shaikh Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, and the Director General of the Municipality of the Southern Region, Asim Abdullatif, were present.

Al Mubarak added that the Ministry had adopted a series of initiatives, including the quadrupling of mangrove coverage in addition to increasing the number of trees in Government projects and major industrial companies, providing supportive policies of afforestation and encouraging individuals to participate in this.

Al Mubarak indicated that the Ministry, through its plans, succeeded in establishing a group of agricultural nurseries for the cultivation of mangroves, including in the Tubli region, which aims to produce thousands of mangroves to rehabilitate a number of areas and sites.

BIC CE, Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa, explained that the Green Ticket initiative is a programme of planting mangroves, which comes within the Kingdom’s goals of increasing the coverage of mangroves fourfold by 2035 by allocating a percentage of each ticket sold during the Kingdom’s hosting of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), in addition to another percentage donated by nogaholding and Mercantile & Maritime.

During the meeting, Shaikh Salman bin Isa expressed his happiness with the introduction of the Green Ticket initiative and the great interest it has generated from the local and international motorsports community.

Shaikh Salman bin Isa thanked the partners of BIC for investing in the project, including nogaholding and Mercantile & Maritime, along with the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) and the WEC, for their invaluable support to the circuit and for doing its part to reduce the impact on the environment.

nogaholding Group Chief Executive Officer, Mark Thomas, said: “We are delighted to be involved in the initiative with other partners to help protect our planet.”