Coastal area rehabilitation for climate change mitigation: The role of mangroves and subnational emissions reductions

Coastal area rehabilitation/restoration involving mangrove ecosystems for climate change mitigation is a long and risk-laden journey. It requires strong and comprehensive governance, and policies that involve stakeholders from the national to subnational levels.

Institutional complexities can become a bureaucratic hurdle and obstruct information and funding flows. These pose new challenges for the implementation of coastal area and mangrove rehabilitation/restoration both inside and outside the forest estate, particularly when they relate to aquaculture and accreted land. Therefore, these complexities need to be simplified by advancing accountability and the credibility of those involved.

Mangrove blue carbon has significant climate change mitigation potential. This relates to the huge carbon stocks in mangrove ecosystems, which are 3–5 times higher than carbon stock in protected tropical forests. As the processes involved in storing such large volumes of carbon are lengthy and complex, emissions mitigation should have a greater focus on conservation of intact mangrove forests. Conservation has a higher benefit-cost ratio and a better guarantee of achieving emissions reduction targets. In addition, mangrove conservation can generate economic activities oriented towards utilization of the environmental services mangroves provide.

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