Protect mangroves and curb CO2

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Protect mangroves and curb CO2

April 07, 2013 - 17:45
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Protecting mangroves to lock carbon away may be an economic way to curb climate change

Conserving mangroves could be an economic way of mitigating greenhouse gases

Dr Juha Siikamaki of the think tank Resources for the Future and his US colleagues have shown that protecting mangroves and thereby reducing the amount of CO2 released may be an affordable way for countries to mitigate their carbon emissions.

The research, which used new high resolution surveys of global mangrove biomass, suggests that protecting these habitats could be a viable means for reducing emissions in comparison to other "carbon offset" methods.

Added benefits
"The bonus is that in doing so, we can preserve important habitats critical to coastal fisheries, rich in biodiversity, and home to hundreds of species of plants and animals, many of them endangered," co-author Professor James Sanchirico, from the University of California, Davis, said in a press statement.

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