According to a new assessment of greenhouse gas volumes emitted from and absorbed by forests in Unesco World Heritage sites, India’s Sundarbans National Park is among five sites that have the highest blue carbon stocks globally.
- Such ‘World Heritage forests’ are now releasing more carbon than they are absorbing, primarily due to human activity and climate change.
- The gross and net carbon absorbed and emitted by Unesco World Heritage forests between 2001 and 2020.
- The other four sites besides the Sundarbans National Park in India are the Bangladeshi portion of the Sundarbans (110 Mt C), Great Barrier Reef in Australia (502 Mt C), Everglades National Park in the United States (400 Mt C) and the Banc d’Arguin National Park in Mauritania (110 Mt C).
What is Blue Carbon?
- The above study described blue carbon as organic carbon that is mainly obtained from decaying plant leaves, wood, roots and animals. It is captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems.
- As per NOAA, Blue carbon is simply the term for carbon captured by the world’s ocean and coastal ecosystems.
- Sea grasses, mangroves, and salt marshes along our coast “capture and hold” carbon, acting as something called a carbon sink.
(Down To Earth and NOAA)
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