Protection of Coastal Wetlands ranks #52 on Drawdown’s list of climate solutions. The strategy could reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide by 3.3 gigatons by 2050, as long as 75 million acres of these vital ecosystems (out of a total of 121 million world-wide) can be secured within the next 30 years.
Found on every continent except Antarctica, the Earth’s mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass beds feed fish and migratory birds as well as human communities, filter water and refill aquifers, and offer “a first line of defence against storm surges and floodwaters,” Drawdown reports. And they sequester huge amounts of carbon. Mangrove forest soils alone “may hold the equivalent of more than two years of global emissions—22 billion tons of carbon,” the authors state, “much of which would escape if these ecosystems were lost.”
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But that loss is in progress: the last three decades or so have seen more than 30% of the world’s mangroves cleared to make way for oil rigs, golf courses, and shrimp farms, and otherwise degraded by pollutants that include the chemicals used to control mosquito populations.
With such clearing and degradation comes the flip of the switch from wetland as carbon sink, to wetland as carbon source. Wholesale destruction of the planet’s wetlands would break open 15 gigatons of so-called “blue carbon,” warns Drawdown, “equivalent to more than 53 gigatons of carbon dioxide if released into the atmosphere.”
That the international community has been slow to react to coastal wetland devastation owes to “wetland” too often in human history meaning “wasteland,” Drawdown states. But things are changing.
“Groups such as the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center on the Chesapeake Bay are building a body of science about the ways to maximize sequestration,” the chapter notes. And “since 2008, a group of European companies have been active in Senegal, spending millions on mangrove restoration and receiving carbon credits to offset emissions back home.”
Even so, the Senegal story has not been all good news, with the well-being of local women, especially, subordinated at least in part to the financial interest and value systems of outsiders.
“Human livelihoods and coastal ecosystems intertwine in complex ways that beg greater understanding” and the “need for equity,” writes Drawdown. But “when coastal wetland investment is done well, returns can be manifold, locally and globally.”
Ulinzi wa maeneo ya mvua ya pwani ni nafasi ya 52 kwenye orodha ya Drawdown ya suluhisho la hali ya hewa. Mkakati huo unaweza kupunguza kaboni dioksidi ya angahewa kwa gigatoni 3.3 kufikia 2050, ikiwa ekari milioni 75 za mifumo hii muhimu ya ikolojia (kutoka jumla ya milioni 121 ulimwenguni) inaweza kulindwa ndani ya miaka 30 ijayo. "Kuna mangrove duniani, marshes chumvi, na seagrass vitanda kulisha samaki na ndege wahamiaji kama vile jamii za binadamu, filter maji na kujaza aquifers, na kutoa ""mstari wa kwanza wa ulinzi dhidi ya dhoruba na mafuriko,"" Drawdown ripoti." Na huficha kiasi kikubwa cha kaboni. "Maporomoko ya ardhi ya misitu ya mangrove yanaweza kuhifadhi kiasi cha kaboni cha ""mabilioni 22"" ya uzalishaji wa mwaka mmoja, ambao wengi wao wangeponyoka ikiwa mifumo hii ya ikolojia ingepotea." Yaliyomo ya awali. Habari za wakati unaofaa na maoni kutoka kwa kikundi kilichochaguliwa cha viongozi wa maoni. Vitu vya ziada vya pekee. - Kila kitu unahitaji, hakuna kitu huna. - The Weekender: Habari za hali ya hewa unazohitaji. Katika miongo mitatu iliyopita, zaidi ya asilimia 30 ya misitu ya mangrove duniani imekatwa ili kufanyiza mashamba ya mafuta, mashamba ya gofu na mashamba ya kufuga mbu, na imeharibiwa na uchafuzi wa mazingira, ikiwa ni pamoja na kemikali zinazotumiwa kudhibiti idadi ya mbu. Kwa kuondolewa na uharibifu kama huo kunakuja kubadilisha kubadili kutoka kwa maeneo ya mvua kama sinki ya kaboni, hadi maeneo ya mvua kama chanzo cha kaboni. "Uharibifu wa jumla wa maeneo ya mvua ya sayari utafungua gigatons 15 za ""kaboni ya bluu,"" Drawdown anaonya, ""iliyolingana na zaidi ya gigatons 53 za kaboni dioksidi ikiwa itatolewa angani.""" Lakini mambo yanabadilika. "Vikundi kama vile Kituo cha Utafiti wa Mazingira cha Smithsonian kwenye Ghuba ya Chesapeake vinajenga mwili wa sayansi juu ya njia za kuongeza kuhifadhi, "sura hiyo inabainisha. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, Senegal imekuwa na shughuli nyingi za biashara, ikitumia mamilioni ya dola katika ukarabati wa misitu ya mangrove na kupokea mikopo ya kaboni ili kulipa uzalishaji wa kaboni nyumbani."" - Mkurugenzi wa Usalama wa Senegal, Robert M. G. G. G. G. " "Vitu vya kuishi vya binadamu na mifumo ya ikolojia ya pwani huingiliana kwa njia ngumu ambazo zinahitaji uelewa mkubwa" na "uhitaji wa usawa", anaandika Drawdown. Lakini <unk>wakati uwekezaji wa maeneo ya mvua ya pwani unafanywa vizuri, mapato yanaweza kuwa mengi, ndani na ulimwenguni. <unk>