Beyond the wide array of marine biodiversity and ecosystems, the East Asian region hosts the world’s largest coastal carbon stocks, which play a vital role in the global carbon cycle. Endowed with four million hectares of mangroves, three million hectares of seagrass meadows and a wide extent of tidal marshes, the region has an immense capacity to sequester carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere. Mangroves, seagrass meadows and tidal marshes are tagged as blue carbon ecosystems.

Global discourse on Blue Carbon solutions in East Asian Seas Congress in Iloilo City. (2018, November 16). Panay News, p. 10.