Mangroves can help meet NDC targets, India can share experience: Minister

India has demonstrated expertise in mangrove restoration for nearly five decades and can contribute to the global knowledge base due to its experience, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said Monday at the launch of the "Mangrove Alliance for Climate".

The UAE and Indonesia have launched the MAC on the sidelines of the UN climate summit COP27, to strengthen conservation and restoration of mangrove ecosystems worldwide. India, Australia, Japan, Spain and Sri Lanka have joined the alliance.

Yadav said creating a new carbon sink from mangrove afforestation and reducing emissions from mangrove deforestation are two feasible ways for countries to meet their NDC targets and achieve carbon neutrality.

NDCs means national plans and pledges made by countries to limit global temperature rise to well below two degrees Celsius, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

"The integration of mangroves into the national programmes for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation is the need of the hour. India can contribute to the global knowledge base due to its extensive experience in mangrove restoration, studies on ecosystem valuation and carbon sequestration," Yadav said.

India has demonstrated expertise in mangrove restoration activities for nearly five decades and restored different types of mangrove ecosystems both on its east and west coasts, he said, adding there has been a significant increase in the mangrove cover in India in the Andaman, Sundarbans and the Gujarat regions.

As part of this alliance, an international mangrove research centre will be established in Indonesia which will conduct studies on mangrove ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and ecotourism.

Mangroves are a means of climate adaptation and protects coasts from rising seas levels, erosion and storm surges.

Mangrove trees can grow in saline waters, and can sequester up to four times more carbon than tropical rainforests. Eighty per cent of the global fish populations depend on mangrove ecosystems.