The Prayas ePathshala

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Context:

During the 27th Session of the Conference of Parties (COP27), this year’s UN climate summit, the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC) was recently founded with India as a partner.
In order to increase India’s carbon sink, New Delhi will collaborate with Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and other countries on the drive to protect and restore the mangrove forests in the region.

Information on Mangroves:

The world’s tallest tree forests are created by MANGROVES, which are woody plants, along tropical and warm temperate coasts. They grow in the saline sediments that are regularly submerged along coastlines.
Mangroves are among the flowering trees in the families Rhizophoraceae, Acanthaceae, Lythraceae, Combretaceae, and Arecaceae.
Mangroves are the ocean’s “blue carbon” forests, also known as “Coastal woodlands,” “Oceanic rainforest,” and “Tidal Forest.” This unusual type of forest, which spans 15.2 million hectares and 123 countries, is made up of only 73 tree species.
Asia is where the majority of mangroves are found in the world. South Asia contains 6.8% of the world’s mangrove cover.

Mangrove forest in India:

The country’s entire mangrove cover is 4,992 sq km, or 0.15 percent of its total land area, and only makes up 3.2% of the world’s mangrove forest, according to the Indian Forest Survey report 2021.
Gujarat has the second-highest percentage (23%), followed by the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, accounting for 43% of all of India’s mangrove cover.
The Sundarbans, which are in West Bengal, are the largest mangrove forest tract in the world. It is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Information about the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC):

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indonesia are leading the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC), which also includes Spain, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, and Japan.
It aims to increase knowledge of the potential advantages of mangroves as a countermeasure to climate change and the contribution they make to lowering global warming.
The UAE wants to plant 3 million mangroves in the next two months to fulfil its COP26 commitment to plant 100 million mangroves by 2030, according to the country’s Minister of Climate Change and the Environment, who made the announcement about the partnership.
There are no real checks and balances to hold members responsible because the MAC alliance’s operations are voluntary. Instead, the parties will decide on their own deadlines and responsibilities for planting and restoring mangroves. Additionally, the group’s members will work together and with one another to protect coastal areas and do management-related research.

Why we value mangroves:

A variety of marine species is supported by mangrove forests, which are intertidal ecosystems of trees and bushes found along coastlines.
Mangrove forests are both economically significant and ecologically significant. They provide ecological services worth at least US$ 1.6 billion yearly and support coastal lifestyles all around the world.
They also serve to maintain a diverse food web, with molluscs and algae-filled substrate acting as a nursery for small fish, mud crabs, and shrimp, providing a livelihood for artisanal fisherman in the area.
Mangroves provide a source of firewood, lumber, cattle feed, honey, medicines, and tourism development. They prevent the seepage of seawater into aquifers of groundwater.
Mangroves have drawn the attention of conservationists for a long time, and it is difficult to overstate their importance in relation to the state of the world’s climate. Mangrove forests remove harmful heavy metal contamination from the coast.
They offer coastal protection from the devastation caused by calamities including tsunami, storm surges, cyclones, and floods.
Although they store up to four times as much carbon as other woody ecosystems, they also function effectively as carbon sinks. Mangrove forests take enormous amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and preserving them can aid in this process as well as prevent the release of that carbon should they be destroyed.

The current state of the mangroves:

Indonesia is home to one-fifth of the world’s mangroves, with some of the largest sections being in South Asia.
India is home to about 3% of South Asia’s mangroves. Along with the West Bengali Sundarbans and the Andaman Islands region, the Gujarati cities of Kachchh and Jamnagar also have a sizable mangrove cover.
However, infrastructure improvements like industrial growth, the building of roads and railroads, as well as natural processes like shifting coastlines, coastal erosion, and storms have caused a dramatic loss in mangrove habitats.
In the period between 2010 and 2020, 600 sq km of mangroves were lost, and more than 62% of the loss was linked to direct human activities, according to the Global Mangrove Alliance’s 2022 report.

COP and India:

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not present at this meeting, unlike other foreign leaders like US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav.
According to the environment minister, India is currently concentrating on finances that are expressly aimed toward combating climate change and has teamed with Brazil, South Africa, and China (the BASIC bloc) to negotiate agreements.

The demands of various negotiating blocs:

As seen in previous sessions of the climate conference, reaching agreement among the 190+ countries that are parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a challenging process.
For instance, in light of rising energy security worries and tensions with Taiwan, China has boosted its use of coal. Its deteriorating relations with the US, which is the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases after Beijing, have made negotiations much more difficult.
The European Union, which represents its 27 members in negotiations and is at the lower end of the gas emission spectrum, is under pressure to soften its opposition to the idea of “loss and damage,” which calls for wealthy, developed nations to compensate for poorer, developing nations that are disproportionately affected by the effects of climate change.
The G7 and China are the largest UN intergovernmental organisation of developing countries. Pakistan, which is now chairing the group and suffered terrible floods this year, will take the lead in the group’s demand for a special fund for compensation from wealthier nations, according to Reuters.
According to reports, the Climate Vulnerable Forum, which includes 58 countries, including Bangladesh and the Maldives, that are disproportionately affected by climate change, is urging the creation of a fund where wealthier polluting countries would contribute to cover “loss and damage” costs.

Final thoughts and next steps:

Mangrove conservation and reforestation are essential from an economic and environmental perspective, and the global community must step up and join MAC to secure its protection.
In order to provide adaptation, mitigation, and financial support for developing and least developed countries, there should also be a proper financial framework based on historically owing developed nation duties, such as the Global Climate Fund (GCF) and the Adaptation Fund.