8 January 2016

The Straits Times

A study done by Assistant Professor Daniel Friess who co-led a team of researchers from the Department of Geography, revealed that Singapore’s mangroves play a key carbon storage role in Singapore.

Despite only occupying less than 1% of land or 960 ha, the mangroves are able to store 450,571.7 tonnes of carbon. This amount is equivalent to 1,652,096 tonnes of stored carbon dioxide (CO2) or 3.7 percent of Singapore’s national CO2 emissions in 2010.

This shows that mangroves are important on a national scale as well as in protecting Earth from the upheavals of climate change, despite its size.

The study, done in 2014, is the first of such study that calculates the total amount of carbon stored in mangroves across the island. It has also been published in international journal Urban Ecosystems last November.

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