Conservation better than restoration to mitigate emissions

Conserving the remaining, nearly intact peatlands and mangroves of South-east Asia the region's green lungs - can absorb far more carbon dioxide (CO2) than restoring degraded tracts of these ecosystems.

- Shabana Begum

Of the carbon emissions that can be avoided and removed by peat forests and mangroves, 86 per cent will come from conserving and protecting untouched habitats, according to a new study led by the National University of Singapore (NUS). The remaining 14 per cent will come from restoring degraded habitats through replanting, for example.

The researchers calculated that conserving and restoring these habitats can reduce about 770 megatonnes of CO2 equivalent annually. This amount is nearly double Malaysia's greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, they said.

These findings were published in scientific journal Nature Communications on Jan 28. Scientists from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and James Cook University in Australia also contributed to the study.

Mangroves can store up to five times as much carbon as tropical forests. Although swampy peatlands cover just 3 per cent of the earth's land surface, they store twice as much carbon as all of the world's forests combined.

But peatlands have for decades been viewed as unproductive wasteland, eyed by agriculture giants and farmers for conversion into plantations and farmland.

Between 2001 and 2022, about 40 per cent of peat swamp forests in South-east Asia in 2000 were lost.

By 2017, the annual rate of loss of these forests had been 108,458ha a year, the study found.

The size of that annual loss is larger than Singapore's land area, which is over 71,000ha.

Peatland fires caused the 2015 haze that shrouded Singapore and the rest of the region, producing emissions higher than the levels in the whole of the European Union.

Therefore, losing more of these carbon reserves to forest fires and agricultural use will pump enormous amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.