Half of land use carbon emissions in Southeast Asia can be mitigated through peat swamp forest and mangrove conservation and restoration.

ABSTRACT: Southeast Asia (SEA) contributes approximately one-third of global land-use change carbon emissions, a substantial yet highly uncertain part of which is from anthropogenically-modified peat swamp forests (PSFs) and mangroves. Here, we report that between 2001-2022 land-use change impacting PSFs and mangroves in SEA generate approximately 691.8±97.2 teragrams of CO₂ equivalent emissions annually (TgCO₂eyr^-1) or 48% of region's land-use change emissions, and carbon removal through secondary regrowth of -16.3 ± 2.0 TgCO₂eyr^-1. Indonesia (73%), Malaysia (14%), Myanmar (7%), and Vietnam (2%) combined accounted for over 90% of regional emissions from these sources. Consequently, great potential exists for emissions reduction through PSFs and

SUBMITTER: Sasmito SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11775092 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature