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NAIROBI, Oct 07 (IPS) – Smelly, boggy, and filled with bugs, mangroves’ superpowers are nicely hidden. Nonetheless, there’s rising confidence that mangroves are the silver bullet to fight the results of local weather change.
“Mangrove ecosystems are a habitat and nursery grounds for numerous vegetation and animals and may soak up three to 4 instances extra carbon than tropical upland forests, serving to to mitigate the results of local weather change,” Dr Sevvandi Jayakody, a senior lecturer at Wayamba College of Sri Lanka, tells IPS.
Mangrove forests additionally act as a pure defence in opposition to storm surges, together with mitigating the results of cyclones and tsunamis, says Dr Nicholas Hardman?Mountford, Head of Oceans and Pure Sources on the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Inside this context, he says, Commonwealth international locations are working collectively underneath the Commonwealth Blue Charter, an settlement made by all 54 member states, to actively work collectively to deal with ocean-related challenges and meet international commitments on sustainable ocean improvement.
The Blue Constitution works via voluntary motion teams led by ‘champion international locations’, who rally round marine air pollution and the sustainable blue economic system.
The Mangrove Ecosystems and Livelihoods Action Group consists of 13 international locations, together with Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Guyana, Jamaica, Kenya, Maldives, Nigeria, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago Vanuatu, and the UK, is championed by Sri Lanka.
Hardman?Mountford tells IPS that international locations trade information centred on mangrove safety, administration, and sustainability inside the motion group. Shared information contains a variety of matters, together with coverage, laws, and regulatory frameworks.
Leveraging on the protecting energy of mangroves, Jayakody says that Sri Lanka is actively constructing its second line of defence. The nation’s first line of defence, the reefs, had been closely compromised by the lethal 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami – one of many worst disasters in trendy historical past, killing almost 230 000 folks throughout dozens of nations.
Such was the devastation that the federal government of Sri Lanka estimated losses of over $1 billion in belongings and $330 million in potential output.
Worse nonetheless, roughly 35 000 folks died or went lacking. In Sri Lanka alone, property harm included 110 000 homes, of which 70 000 had been destroyed. In all, no less than 250 000 households misplaced their technique of assist.
Consultants say that mangroves have immense capability to stop such catastrophes and fight different devastating results of local weather change.
Bolstered by rising scientific proof, Trinidad and Tobago, the dual-island Caribbean nation, has made vital strides in constructing its defence utilizing mangroves.
Dr Rahanna Juman, Appearing Director on the Institute of Marine Affairs, a government-funded analysis institute, tells IPS that in 2014, the federal government of Trinidad and Tobago commissioned an aerial survey of the nation. Utilizing this knowledge, an estimate of carbon in mangrove forests throughout the nation was ascertained.
“This info illustrated how mangrove and different hardwood forests might offset emissions and was integrated into the Greenhouse Gasoline stock of Trinidad and Tobago. Importantly, the survey conclusively demonstrated that mangrove forests retailer extra carbon per hectare than different hardwood forests,” Juman expounds.
In 2020, the Institute of Marine Affairs acquired funding from the British Excessive Fee to fund a mangrove soil carbon evaluation undertaking involving Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
Dr Juman signifies that the evaluation discovered that “the quantity of carbon within the mangrove soil was many instances bigger than the quantity of carbon above the bottom. That is an evaluation that may very well be replicated in different Commonwealth international locations as a result of now we have developed a low-cost strategy of endeavor this essential evaluation.”
Including that Mangroves are beginning to be integrated into the United Nations Decreasing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) programme, which implies international locations might probably earn cash from defending and restoring mangroves.
In the meantime, Hardman?Mountford cites numerous challenges in exploring blue carbon as a result of it’s nonetheless an evolving space of science and coverage.
Sri Lanka understands this problem all too nicely. After the Tsunami, Jayakody says that the federal government launched huge mangrove restoration initiatives overlaying over 2 000 hectares in partnership with different companies.
As a consequence of restricted info on mangroves, she tells IPS {that a} majority of those initiatives failed. Undeterred and leveraging on scientific analysis over time, Sri Lanka is right now a hit story in restoring and conserving mangrove cowl estimated at 19 600 hectares.
Different challenges dealing with international locations eager on mangrove blue carbon embody a scarcity of safety for mangroves as a result of roughly 75 % of mangrove forests globally stay unprotected and overexploited.
Through the years, Jayakody signifies that mangroves have been at a really excessive threat of destruction as a result of their energy to stop coastal erosion, defend shorelines, and supply livelihoods for coastal communities via fisheries was not totally understood.
Hardman?Mountford agrees, including that mangrove forests have declined globally with a lack of between 30 to 50 % over the previous 50 years from over-harvesting, air pollution, agriculture, aquaculture, and coastal improvement.
The Commonwealth has an enormous function to play in reversing this decline.
Total, there are 47 Commonwealth international locations with a shoreline.
“Practically 90 % of Commonwealth international locations with a coast have mangroves, and no less than 38 of those international locations with mangroves have supplied some degree of safety to their mangroves. In all, 16 international locations have protected about half or extra of their mangroves,” he says.
This can be a problem that Sri Lanka is efficiently overcoming. With an estimated 40 % of the inhabitants in Sri Lanka dwelling alongside the shoreline, Jayakody says that there was an pressing want to guard each livelihoods and coastlines from additional degradation.
“In 2015, Sri Lanka established the Nationwide Mangrove Professional Committee, and thru that, all mangroves had been mapped. Extra so, a number of new areas had been introduced underneath safety, and there have been relentless efforts to enhance the communities’ understanding of the significance of mangrove ecosystem,” she says.
Additional, Sri Lanka just lately validated the Greatest Apply Pointers on the Restoration of Mangroves in Sri Lanka and the nationwide mangrove motion plan, according to the mangrove coverage adopted in 2020.
Different international locations making strides in the precise path embody the Australian authorities’s involvement with blue carbon and particularly ongoing efforts to construct capability in blue carbon science, coverage and economics via multi-sectoral partnerships.
“To assist its efforts in blue carbon advocacy and outreach, the Australian authorities launched the Worldwide Partnership for Blue Carbon (IPBC) on the UNFCCC CoP in Paris in 2015,” says Ms Heidi Prislan, a Blue Constitution Adviser on the Commonwealth Secretariat.
Australia can also be one of many 28 international locations that refer particularly to the mitigation advantages of carbon sequestration related to coastal wetlands in its Nationwide Greenhouse Gasoline Stock. As compared, 59 different international locations point out coastal ecosystems as a part of their adaptation methods.
To extend alternatives for blue carbon to take part within the nationwide emissions discount scheme, the Emissions Discount Fund, the Australian authorities has supported analysis into potential mitigation methodologies that may very well be carried out to generate carbon credit from home initiatives.
Equally essential, she says that Commonwealth member international locations have collectively made 44 nationwide commitments to guard or restore mangroves.
Because the world stares at a disaster from the devastating results of local weather change, the huge potential of blue carbon and, extra so, mangrove blue carbon to bolster local weather change adaptation, mitigation and resilience efforts can now not be ignored.
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© Inter Press Service (2021) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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