Challenges to Mangrove Forestry-Related Projects and Possible Solutions

Mangrove-based carbon trading offers promise but faces significant challenges, including difficulties in accurately estimating biomass and carbon storage due to analytical gaps, market instability, and data collection issues. Lack of regional and global data on carbon storage by biotic communities like phytoplankton, molluscs, and seaweeds further complicates the matter. In addition, mangrove carbon credit projects often result in monoculture plantations that harm biodiversity, displace local communities, and create economic dependency on volatile carbon trading revenues. Land ownership conflicts, especially in regions like the Lower Gangetic Delta (LGD), exacerbate these issues. India’s carbon trading policies, including the Green Credit programme launched in October 2023, focus on green credits and mangrove conservation through afforestation and habitat restoration. Despite its broad scope, the programme gets hindered by issues like measuring non-GHG components (like biodiversity spectrum), standardizing prices, and integrating diverse ecosystem services into a unified national market. Addressing these challenges requires international cooperation, CSR emphasis, voluntary conservation policies, and global carbon standardization. Few major steps to enhance mangrove-based carbon trading in the Indian Sundarbans include standardizing carbon estimation protocols, using drone or satellite data to calibrate ground-level biomass data, and promoting few innovative practices like halophyte farming, seaweed culture, saltmarsh grass propagation, oyster culture, and increasing phytoplankton biomass in shrimp farms. These practices can boost carbon sequestration through nature-based solutions and provide alternative livelihoods for local communities, ensuring the sustainability and effectiveness of mangrove-based carbon trading.