Mangrove Forests Could Be a Big Player in Carbon Trading

And I’m Faith Lapidus. This week, we will tell how coastal forests help to fight rising temperatures in Earth’s atmosphere. We tell about efforts to clean up the highest mountain on Earth. And we tell about honors for three American scientists.


BOB DOUGHTY: A new report says mangrove forests store more planet-warming carbon dioxide than almost any other ecosystem on Earth. The report says loss of these forests is releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere.

Greenhouse gases trap warm air in the atmosphere. Most climate scientists believe the gases are responsible, at least in part, for climate change.

Mangrove forests are found along coasts in tropical countries. The warm water often serves as a home for fish and other creatures. The plants and trees also help protect coastal areas from storm damage.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The new report was published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Daniel Donato works with the United States Forest Service. He and his team studied tree mass, dead wood and soil carbon in twenty-five mangrove ecosystems in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Mr. Donato says these areas are among the most carbon-rich forests in the world. He found that mangroves store about three to four times more carbon per hectare as temperate forests or even tropical rainforests. But Mr. Donato says most of the carbon is hidden. The carbon is found mainly in the soil and tree roots.

BOB DOUGHTY: About one-third to one-half of the world’s mangrove forests have been cut down in the past fifty years. Some of the forests were cut for wood or wood products. Others were lost to coastal development or aquaculture.

Mangroves make up less than one percent of all tropical forests. Mr. Donato says the report should get the attention of policy makers.

DANIEL DONATO: “It shows mangroves are probably pretty good candidates for things like carbon-market trading to encourage sustainable forest management.”

FAITH LAPIDUS: Some activists say carbon markets could be a powerful force for protecting the environment. In such a market, industries can buy the right to produce carbon dioxide in exchange for protecting forests or taking other steps.

Emily Pidgeon works for the group Conservation International. She says the value of the mangrove often is not clear to policy makers.

EMILY PIDGEON: “By suddenly having an actual mechanism to value these systems in dollars, it gives you a potentially very large new mechanism for countering the other financial and economic arguments.”

BOB DOUGHTY: Other groups are considering the economics of mangrove protection from the buyer’s side. They have urged Western supermarkets and other large buyers to only purchase farmed seafood that has little affect on mangrove loss.

Emily Pidgeon says one way to help developing countries value mangroves is to see them as something that provides many services. Those services could include protecting the fisheries that many coastal communities depend on for food and jobs. For many communities, carbon storage is just the latest service they may see mangroves providing.