Blue Carbon Stocks of Mangrove Conservation Areas in Southeast Asia: Opportunities and Challenges in Forest Protection and Restoration

One of today’s most serious global problems is climate change. Deforestation account to as much as 20% of this problem due to carbon emissions from cutting down trees and its corresponding ecosystem degradation. Forest restoration is vital to reverse this trend. Among the tropical forests, mangroves provide a vital role in mitigating climate change. They offer diverse benefits and services that contribute to human well-being. One of its astonishing services is their ability to greatly sequester atmospheric carbon, which is popularly termed as blue carbon. Global mangrove cover continues to decline at an alarming rate. In Southeast Asia, loss in mangrove cover accounted to 58% from the 1990s to 2015, whereas 30% was mainly due to the conversion of mangrove areas to aquaculture. Other drivers of mangrove loss in Southeast Asia include conversion to rice and oil palm plantations, and coastal reclamation. Serious mangrove loss has prompted the need for adopting conservation programs like those under UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere, Ramsar Wetlands of International Importance, and blue carbon project initiatives that are in-lined with REDD Plus. These programs generally aims at better protection of biodiversity, promotion of sustainable livelihoods, and conservation of carbon stocks. This chapter showcases the vital role of Southeast Asian mangroves under various UN’s conservation programs in blue carbon storage. Estimated carbon stocks from several studies in selected biosphere reserves, Ramsar sites and protected areas were listed and described. Key findings showed that blue carbon stocks range from 77 Mg C ha−1 to 1220 Mg C ha−1, of which a larger part was observed in the sediment pool. As blue carbon studies emerged over the last decade, there exists differences and variations in carbon stock estimation due to varying methodologies in estimation. Overall, mangroves under UN’s conservation programs have huge potential for developing blue carbon projects. There are however various biophysical and socio-institutional challenges that need to be understood and overcome. It is necessary to craft local integrated mangrove management plans, adopt collaborative mangrove governance approach, and forge regional alliances and mangrove road map for the ASEAN in order to effectively use blue carbon programs.