Hong Kong’s Archireef ties up with FAB to restore Middle East marine ecosystems

The patented reef tiles, manufactured by Archireef’s 3D-printing process, will provide a new habitat for 2,400 corals.

“Our partnership with Archireef will ensure that adequate funding and pioneering technologies are deployed to protect and restore the UAE’s corals,” said Futoon Al Mazrouei, FAB’s group head of consumer banking for UAE in a statement.

The start-up said 50 per cent of coral reefs have been lost worldwide in the past three decades and scientists have projected that 90 per cent of the world’s reefs will be gone by 2050.

Healthy coral reefs act as natural breakwaters by significantly reducing wave action, thus protecting coastal communities from natural disasters such as storms and floods.

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“We believe financial institutions like FAB play a critical role in climate change mitigation and restoration, specifically by helping mobilise and deploy capital as well as engage their vast communities and ecosystem players in the journey,” said Vriko Yu Pik-fan, CEO and co-founder of Archireef in a statement.

Without reefs, flood damages would increase by 91 per cent, amounting to US$272 billion. Well-managed reefs, on the other hand, provide food for 1.2 billion people, according to Archireef’s website.

“Archireef’s 3D-printed reef tiles allow marine life to take shelter, promoting the establishment of healthy marine ecosystems with increased reef associated biodiversity, including fishes and invertebrates,” the website said.

The financial services sector and businesses must not only increase investments in nature-based solutions but also implement incentives to redirect finance from harmful activities, according to the State of Finance for Nature report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Global Canopy and the Economics of Land Degradation initiative, released on Saturday at Cop28.

“Nature-based solutions are dramatically underfunded,” said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP. “Annual nature-negative investments are over 30 times larger than financing for nature-based solutions that promote a stable climate, and healthy land and nature. To have any chance of meeting the sustainable development goals, these numbers must be flipped.”