Mangroves provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including nutrient cycling, soil formation, wood production, fish spawning grounds, ecotourism and carbon (C) storage 1 . High rates of tree and plant growth, coupled with anaerobic, water-logged soils that slow decomposition, result in large long-term C storage. Given their global significance as large sinks of C, preventing mangrove loss would be an e ective climate change adaptation and mitigation strategy. It has been reported that C stocks in the Indo-Pacific region contain on average 1,023 MgC ha −1 (ref. 2). Here, we estimate that Indonesian mangrove C stocks are 1,083 ± 378 MgC ha −1 . Scaled up to the country-level mangrove extent of 2.9 Mha (ref. 3), Indonesia's mangroves contained on average 3.14 PgC. In three decades Indonesia has lost 40% of its mangroves 4 , mainly as a result of aquaculture development 5 . This has resulted in annual emissions of 0.07-0.21 Pg CO 2 e. Annual mangrove deforestation in Indonesia is only 6% of its total forest loss 6 ; however, if this were halted, total emissions would be reduced by an amount equal to 10-31% of estimated annual emissions from land-use sectors at present. Conservation of carbon-rich mangroves in the Indonesian archipelago should be a high-priority component of strategies to mitigate climate change.Globally, deforestation and conversion of mangroves has been shown to contribute 0.08-0.48 Pg CO 2 e yr −1 , or 10% of the total global emissions from tropical deforestation, even though mangroves account for only about 0.7% of the world's tropical forest area 2 . C losses from mangrove conversion can be high not only because of losses from aboveground C pools but also belowground pools. Potential C losses from mangroves converted to shrimp ponds in the Dominican Republic were 661-1,135 MgC ha −1 (ref. 7).In 1980, there were 4.2 Mha of mangrove forests along Indonesia's 95,000 km of coastline 3 . Over just 20 years mangrove forest cover had declined about 26%, to an estimated 3.
Less than half of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions remain in the atmosphere. While carbon balance models imply large carbon uptake in tropical forests, direct on-the-ground observations are still lacking in Southeast Asia. Here, using long-term plot monitoring records of up to half a century, we find that intact forests in Borneo gained 0.43 Mg C ha−1 per year (95% CI 0.14–0.72, mean period 1988–2010) in above-ground live biomass carbon. These results closely match those from African and Amazonian plot networks, suggesting that the world’s remaining intact tropical forests are now en masse out-of-equilibrium. Although both pan-tropical and long-term, the sink in remaining intact forests appears vulnerable to climate and land use changes. Across Borneo the 1997–1998 El Niño drought temporarily halted the carbon sink by increasing tree mortality, while fragmentation persistently offset the sink and turned many edge-affected forests into a carbon source to the atmosphere.
While attention on logging in the tropics has been increasing, studies on the long-term effects of silviculture on forest dynamics and ecology remain scare and spatially limited. Indeed, most of our knowledge on tropical forests arises from studies carried out in undisturbed tropical forests. This bias is problematic given that logged and disturbed tropical forests are now covering a larger area than the so-called primary forests. A new network of permanent sample plots in logged forests, the Tropical managed Forests Observatory (TmFO), aims to fill this gap by providing unprecedented opportunities to examine long-term data on the resilience of logged tropical forests at regional and global scales. TmFO currently includes 24 experimental sites distributed across three tropical regions, with a total of 490 permanent plots and 921 ha of forest inventories.
Forest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth’s ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of aboveground biomass (AGB) is now possible with satellite remote sensing (RS). However, RS methods require extant, up-to-date, reliable, representative and comparable in situ data for calibration and validation. Here, we present the Forest Observation System (FOS) initiative, an international cooperation to establish and maintain a global in situ forest biomass database. AGB and canopy height estimates with their associated uncertainties are derived at a 0.25 ha scale from field measurements made in permanent research plots across the world’s forests. All plot estimates are geolocated and have a size that allows for direct comparison with many RS measurements. The FOS offers the potential to improve the accuracy of RS-based biomass products while developing new synergies between the RS and ground-based ecosystem research communities.
In terms of climate change mitigation, mangroves serve as carbon sinks and the loss of mangrove forests can result in significant release of stored carbon. As the country in the world with the largest cover of mangrove forest, Indonesia has global significance in climate change mitigation. About 22% of mangrove forests in Indonesia are preserved in conservation areas and provide 0.82–1.09 PgC hectare−1 of carbon storage. Greater potential for climate change mitigation can be achieved by increasing mangrove conservation areas that keep mangrove forests from their conversion to other land uses. Our finding confirms the importance of mangrove conservation in storing and sequestering carbon. Furthermore, as mangrove forests are associated with a diversity of ecosystem services with multiple beneficiaries, the carbon benefits will enhance the value of mangrove forest in terms of ecological, social, and economic benefits. However, prioritizing carbon benefits through the implementation of mangrove conservation as part of climate change mitigation may be conflicting with socioeconomic issues. Thus, legal frameworks and the participation of stakeholders, especially local communities, are needed to ensure that there is a net reduction in mangrove loss. This article is categorized under: Climate, Ecology, and Conservation > Conservation Strategies
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