1. Half of land use carbon emissions in Southeast Asia can be mitigated through peat swamp forest and mangrove conservation and restoration.
- Author
-
Sasmito SD, Taillardat P, Adinugroho WC, Krisnawati H, Novita N, Fatoyinbo L, Friess DA, Page SE, Lovelock CE, Murdiyarso D, Taylor D, and Lupascu M
- Subjects
- Asia, Southeastern, Carbon Dioxide analysis, Ecosystem, Malaysia, Wetlands, Conservation of Natural Resources methods, Carbon analysis, Forests, Soil chemistry
- Abstract
Southeast Asia (SEA) contributes approximately one-third of global land-use change carbon emissions, a substantial yet highly uncertain part of which is from anthropogenically-modified peat swamp forests (PSFs) and mangroves. Here, we report that between 2001-2022 land-use change impacting PSFs and mangroves in SEA generate approximately 691.8±97.2 teragrams of CO
2 equivalent emissions annually (TgCO2 eyr-1 ) or 48% of region's land-use change emissions, and carbon removal through secondary regrowth of -16.3 ± 2.0 TgCO2 eyr-1 . Indonesia (73%), Malaysia (14%), Myanmar (7%), and Vietnam (2%) combined accounted for over 90% of regional emissions from these sources. Consequently, great potential exists for emissions reduction through PSFs and mangroves conservation. Moreover, restoring degraded PSFs and mangroves could provide an additional annual mitigation potential of 94.4 ± 7.4 TgCO2 eyr-1 . Although peatlands and mangroves occupy only 5.4% of SEA land area, restoring and protecting these carbon-dense ecosystems can contribute substantially to climate change mitigation, while maintaining valuable ecosystem services, livelihoods and biodiversity., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests., (© 2025. The Author(s).)- Published
- 2025
- Full Text
- View/download PDF