Mitigating climate change through restoration and management of coastal wetlands and near-shore marine ecosystems: challenges and opportunities
The World Bank has released a report titled "Mitigating Climate Change through Restoration and Management of Coastal Wetlands and Near-shore Marine Ecosystems," which finds that drainage and degradation of coastal wetlands emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide directly into the atmosphere and lead to decreased carbon sequestration. The report, written in partnership with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and wetland specialists ESA PWA, underscored the need for: protecting coastal wetlands; creating incentives for avoiding their degradation and improving their restoration; and including the protection of these ecosystems in carbon emission reduction strategies and in climate negotiations. The report highlights that the current rates of degradation and loss of coastal wetlands and destruction of about 20% of the worlds’ mangroves has led to the release of centuries of accumulated carbon. This has also disturbed the natural protection against storm surges and other extreme weather events. Of the 15 coastal deltas studied in the report, seven were found to have released more than 500 million tons of carbon dioxide each since the wetlands were drained, mostly in the past 100 years.