The impact of planting Mangrove trees
Mangroves are unique ecosystems found throughout a wide range in the tropics and occupying the intertidal areas of more than 120 countries. Mangroves, and coastal wetlands in general, are globally important for the many services they provide to humans and the planet. These services include protection against storm surges, sheltering nurseries for fish and other marine life, providing building materials, firewood, and providing critically important services to stabilising the global climate as an important store of carbon.
Mangroves, an incredible carbon sink
With the rapid increase in greenhouse gas emissions over the last century, the need forenduring carbon sinks has grown. The latest models suggest that to remain within“acceptable” global temperature increase, it is no longer enough to simply reduceemissions, and protect existing forests, but rather that we need to rapidly increase the ability to sequester carbon. Globally, mangrove systems are estimated to hold an astounding 20 petagrams of carbon. For a biome representing less than 5% of the world’s terrestrial area, this makes mangroves one of the most important carbon stocks, even more than many rainforests like the Amazon. Equally, as a relatively fast-growing group of species, mangroves sequester carbon at a very fast rate.