Preserving Indonesia's mangroves crucial for climate change mitigation

Indonesia’s mangrove forests store around 3.14 billion metric tons of carbon (PgC), or five times more carbon per hectare than highland tropical forests, according to Daniel Murdiyarso, a long-time principal scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and a leading wetlands expert.

Mangroves, however, have been disappearing more quickly than inland tropical rainforests, particularly due to clear-cutting for shrimp farms.

The loss of mangroves has led to a decline in fisheries, degradation of clean water supply, salinization of coastal soils, erosion and land subsidence, as well as increase in gas emissions, among other things.