Mangroves Among Most Carbon-Rich Forests in the Tropics

Last month, Solid World announced the details about our first liquidity pool, which will contain forward carbon credits for blue carbon mangrove restoration projects.

Blue carbon is what we call carbon that is sequestered by the world’s oceanic and coastal ecosystems. This includes algae, seagrasses, macroalgae, mangroves, salt marshes and other plants in coastal wetlands.

As these water-based plants grow, they suck in carbon and sink it deep into the soil beneath the water. Mangroves are especially good at this.

Mangroves are trees that grow in tropical coastland swamps, with networks of roots that extend down into the soil below the water.

Studies have shown that mangroves are among the most carbon rich forests in the tropics, containing on average 1,023 Mg carbon per hectare.

In addition to sequestering carbon, mangroves also provide a variety of co-benefits to nearby areas by reducing flooding and erosion from storms, trapping sediment, filtering pollutants from water and acting as a habitat for fish and other wildlife.

Researchers believe that the economic value provided to nearby economies could be as high as $194,000 per hectare every year. Unfortunately, it has been estimated that at least 35% of the world’s mangrove forests were lost between 1980 and 2000.

Mangrove deforestation contributes around 10% of emissions from deforestation globally, despite covering only 0.7% area of tropical forests.

A report from the United Nations Environment Program warned that the destruction of mangrove forests is happening far faster than forests on land, resulting in $42 billion in economic damages to the global economy every year.

Fewer mangrove forests also means that more carbon is being released into the atmosphere as well. A 2018 study indicated that up to 122 million tons of this carbon was released due to mangrove forest loss between 2000 and 2015.

Perhaps this is why The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has said that Mangroves and marshes are key in the climate change battle.

According to a report from BeZero, Blue Carbon projects only make up a very small percentage of the voluntary carbon market, despite having an outsized impact on carbon reduction and nearby ecosystems.

This is something that we are hoping to change by facilitating forward carbon credits for blue carbon.

The Solid World platform is planning to launch in early 2023, but the community is already starting to form. Join our Discord server today to learn more and to reach out to our team with your questions.