The Brazilian government has launched a programme to enhance the conservation of mangroves in the country, which boasts the second-largest area of mangrove cover in the world.
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed a decree establishing the National Programme for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of the Mangroves of Brazil, dubbed ProManguezal and aimed at defining guidelines and actions for bolstering conservation efforts.
“Mangroves are one of the most important environments for carbon capture, safeguarding coastal populations, in addition to being nurseries of marine and coastal biodiversity,” said the director of ocean and coastal management at the Brazilian environment ministry, Ana Paula Prates.
The newly established programme will focus on six key areas – advancing conservation activities, promoting sustainable use of mangroves, reducing climate change impacts on local communities, scaling financing, disseminating traditional knowledge, and training both local communities and public authority members.
Marine pollution control, enhanced monitoring of invasive species, and the conservation of endangered species in mangrove ecosystems are among the actions outlined by the decree, which calls for integrating mangrove protection in land management.
The initiative seeks to foster data collection to inform decision-making about nature, advance the economic valuation of mangroves, and develop financial mechanisms to support conservation activities.
Under the ProManguezal programme, the sustainable use of mangroves could generate additional income for local communities and help promote ‘bioeconomy’, said the government, which is striving to hasten its uptake at a national and global level.
CLIMATE ADAPTATION
Brazil’s coastal mangroves stretch across 1.4 million hectares, accounting for approximately 9% of the world’s mangrove cover, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Over 500,000 families across the country directly rely on mangroves, according to Brazil’s environment ministry, with coastal ecosystems increasingly threatened by sea level rise and severe storms in recent years.
“[The programme] aims to promote and strengthen the role of mangroves in mitigation and adaptation to climate change, with emphasis on the storage of carbon by the ecosystem and its ecosystem service for the protection of the coast,” said the decree.
A study published in March in Nature Communications found that preventing mangrove conversion to pastures in the Amazon could avoid nearly 50% more CO2 emissions than previously estimated by models.
Mangrove destruction results in potential emissions of 1,228 tonnes CO2e per hectare – up to 20 times higher than emissions from equivalent deforestation of the Amazon rainforest, it added.
Globally, mangroves are often destroyed for conversion to pastures, shrimp ponds, or other aquaculture, permanently eliminating large carbon stocks.
Last month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released its first-ever assessment of the world’s mangrove ecosystems, showing that more than half of them are at risk of collapse by 2050.
By Sergio Colombo – sergio@carbon-pulse.com
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