Conserving and restoring Southeast Asia’s carbon-rich peatlands and mangroves could mitigate more than 50 per cent of the region’s land-use carbon emissions, according to a new international study published in Nature Communications.
Conserving and restoring Southeast Asia’s carbon-rich peatlands and mangroves could mitigate more than 50 per cent of the region’s land-use carbon emissions, according to a new international study published in Nature Communications.
Despite occupying just 5 per cent of the region’s terrestrial land, these ecosystems play an outsized role in emission reduction efforts, making them crucial for meeting climate targets across ASEAN countries.
The research study, conducted by an international team of scientists from NUS, with contributions from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) and James Cook University in Australia, highlights the significant climate benefits of conserving and restoring peatlands and mangroves.
Together, these ecosystems store more than 90 per cent of their carbon in soils rather than vegetation, making them among the most efficient natural carbon sinks globally.
Read more at National University of Singapore
Image: A mangrove forest in the Maldives. (Credit: Pierre Taillardat)
