Mangroves as "super carbon storage"
Mangroves can store 5 times as much carbon as other habitats and are super carbon storage, says Assoc Prof Dan Friess, PI of Natural Capital Singapore in the Channel NewsAsia programme Tipping Point.
In episode 3 of the documentary external pageTipping Point (35:25), external pageAssociate Professor Dan Friess, principal investigator of Natural Capital Singapore project, describes mangroves as "super carbon storage" that can store five times as much carbon as other habitats. He says that in Singapore, mangroves store 450,000 tonnes of carbon, as much carbon as what 620,000 people would generate in a year.
The documentary also puts the spotlight on the three-year Natural Capital Singapore project by the Singapore-ETH Centre and the National University of Singapore. The project, a first in Singapore, is measuring how marine, mangrove, forests and other habitats, contribute to the environment.
"The value is not just the economic value, but also the social value, such as what these habitats mean to us? This 'value' is useful information for decision makers to look at more oppotunities to create more natural capital and get more benefits out of it," says Assoc Prof Friess.
In the documentary (39:15), Prof Gerhard Schmitt and Lea Ruefenacht from the Cooling Singapore team also discuss urban heat and how it could affect outdoor comfort, health and productivity.