A man measures of the growth of newly planted mangroves in Silonay, the Philippines. Coastal ecosystems are rich carbon sinks and provide a host of other benefits. Image: Nandini Narayanan The Philippines could be home to the first blue carbon project in Asia-Pacific that uses a ground-breaking method to calculate the amount of carbon stored in mangroves. Blue carbon refers to carbon captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems such as mangroves and seagrasses, which are rich carbon sinks that store more carbon than terrestrial forests. The upcoming pilot project, by non-governmental organisation (NGO) Conservation International, aims to generate carbon credits that companies or consumers can buy to offset their greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon credits have been sold from mangrove restoration projects by other organisations elsewhere in Asia, such as the one by Worldview International Foundation in Myanmar . However, existing methodologies traditionally used for terrestrial forests have, so far, only calculated the amount of carbon in the biomass (organic material) of the forests and trees, said Robert Baigrie, senior director and head of developed markets at Conservation International. They do not take into account the significant amounts of carbon stored in sediments held in place by the root systems […]

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