Brazil has 7% of mangrove global area and they are found in nearly all the Brazilian coast, from the northern border with French Guiana, to the southern State of Santa Catarina. Brazilian mangroves have a greater C stock capacity than many in-land ecosystems. Previous research reported that tropical semiarid mangrove soils of Northeast Brazil have a C storage capacity up to six times higher than the average storage capacity of other vegetation units of the semiarid region.

Even comparing to other carbon-rich ecosystems, mangroves hold more organic carbon. For example, in the Amazon region, carbon stocks of mangroves soils were over twice those of upland evergreen forests. Despite its huge importance, mangroves are being lost at a higher rate than tropical forests and the major threats to mangrove areas in Brazil are landward expansion, deforestation, aquaculture, salt mining and subsistence agriculture. There is also an imminent threat of losing suitable habitats for mangroves forests if sea levels rises to fast.

In order to conserve, restore and manage these ecosystems, we need raise money to finance conservation efforts. A barrier to establish values for mangrove carbon storage is also due to its dynamic nature as it is challenging to reach trustable net balance ratings of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to support carbon neutrality initiatives, which allows companies to buy certified carbon credits and reduce their tax burdens.

Although the research agenda on these ecosystems is already dealing with these issues, there is still a long way to go. But we need to preserve and restore these ecosystems now in order to reach the climate change mitigation goals. One of the ways we can tackle the problem immediately is by adopting a carbon tax to protect tropical forests, including mangroves. Other countries, such as Costa Rica and Colombia already adopted this as a levy on fossil fuels and are successfully investing the revenue on conservation efforts. It is time for Brazil to do the same.