Carbon Rich Mangrove Forests: An Overview for Strategic Management and Climate Change Mitigation

Carbon dioxide (CO2) once emitted to the atmosphere, takes centuries for natural removal. Every 4 giga tones of carbon (GtC) emitted to the atmosphere results in a rise of one ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. Mangroves growing near the coast play an important role in carbon sequestration by acting as sink for carbon, thereby receiving considerable international attention. In India Mangroves occupy 4740 sqkm, about 3 % of the world’s mangrove cover. Sundarbans in India is the largest mangrove site in the world, colonized with many threatened animal species. The paper attempts to highlight the Carbon storage in Mangrove living biomass and sediments particularly of South Asian and Indian regions. Reviews suggest that C storage in mangroves at different climatic regions, sites, stands and different depths of soils store more carbon per unit area. All the reviews suggest that mangroves are a globally significant contributor to the carbon cycle.