Give yourself a mid-year boost and check-in to make the most…Is TypeWhizz Real Or Another Online Scam? Let’s InvestigateMário Soares, a professor of biological oceanography at Rio de Janeiro State University who leads the Mangrove Studies Center , has spent more than 30 years studying Brazil’s mangroves, their role in climate change, the effects of oil spills and the importance of mangrove conservation.
As a child, Mário Soares ventured into a mangrove in the Guaratiba neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro for the first time. Throughout his life’s journey, this place remained with him. After graduating in oceanography and conducting research on a mangrove crab species in Sepetiba Bay, Soares decided to shift his focus to ecosystem ecology.
Soares recently talked with Mongabay in a video call. The following interview has been translated from Portuguese and edited for length and clarity.The importance of mangroves isn’t solely about mitigation. Because when we discuss mitigation through mangroves, carbon sequestration often takes center stage — they capture a great amount of carbon — but that’s just one form of mitigation. Another form is by reducing the vulnerability of coastal zones.
Therefore, we must reduce their vulnerability so that they, in turn, can reduce the vulnerability of the coastal zone. We’re talking about a forest system within the region we call the intertidal zone — between low tide and high tide. So, the first thing we observe is that they will primarily suffer from sea-level rise, and if the sea level rises rapidly, they will either drown or adapt.
The second issue is that the carbon market doesn’t address the problem; it only tackles the symptom. In other words, we’re not reducing emissions. In fact, what we’ve seen is an increase in emissions, and in a way, we’re granting permission for emissions to continue, under the condition that they are offset by sequestration in another system.
Brazil’s mangroves, despite historical reduction — some areas are even recovering, such as some areas in Rio de Janeiro — 80% of our mangroves are in protected areas, so we need to protect them. In my view, the fact that mangroves have a high amount of carbon compared to other systems shows the importance of mangrove conservation.
Many people say, “This is not my problem.” It is indeed our problem, when you destroy a natural system like the Caatinga, like the mangrove, which has a community who depends on it, and that community becomes vulnerable, or that community migrates and becomes a sub-society within a nearby urban center, then it affects you indirectly, or it will be supported by social programs that come from our taxes, so it concerns all of us.