Mangroves could reduce carbon emissions in Southeast Asia by 50%

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Conserving and restoring carbon-rich peatlands and mangroves in Southeast Asia would reduce more than 50% of the region’s land-use carbon emissions.

Southeast Asia is home to some of the world’s largest areas of tropical peatlands and mangroves, with the Sundarbans in India and Bangladesh being the most important.

These regions can store more than 90% of their carbon in soils rather than in vegetation. At the same time, they share water-saturated, oxygen-limited soils that slow the decomposition of organic matter, making them the most effective natural carbon sinks globally when undisturbed.