Did you know? Last July 26 we celebrated International Mangrove Day. Did you know that mangroves help regulate our planet’s climate by storing large amounts of carbon, often called ‘blue carbon’? According to the IUCN, mangroves, together with tidal marshes and seagrasses, store more carbon per unit area than terrestrial forests. This ability of these ecosystems to store and remove carbon dioxide from the earth’s atmosphere can help to mitigate the negative effects of climate change. However, if these ecosystems are degraded, the carbon stores that have been built up over centuries will be released, which will result in an additional excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Mangroves also provide essential food security and weather protection for coastal communities.

Learn more about blue carbon here: https://www.iucn.org/resources/issues-briefs/blue-carbon

Photo by: Rili Djohani/CTC