Economic value of aboveground mangrove biomass carbon storage in Sonora, Mexico

Introduction: Mangroves provide environmental goods and services that mitigate climate change. Objective: To estimate the economic value of the carbon stock in the aboveground biomass of mangroves in Bahía del Tóbari (BT) and El Sargento in Sonora. Materials and methods: Field research were conducted in 2014 and 2015 in 16 plots (10 x 10 m). Biomass of Laguncularia racemosa (L.) Gaertn, Rhizophora mangle L. and Avicennia germinans(L.) L. was determined with specific allometric equations. Carbon stocks and avoided CO2e emissions were estimated with conversion factors 0.5 and 3.7, respectively; these data represented the 2015 baseline. The 2020 estimates included changes in mangrove cover. The economic value was determined using the marginal carbon abatement cost method. Results and discussion: The 2015 baseline indicated reserves of 52.1 MgC∙ha-1 and 191.2 tCO2e∙ha-1 for BT, and 71.7 MgC∙ha-1 and 263.2 tCO2e∙ha-1 for El Sargento. By 2020 avoided emissions of 69 368.2 tCO2e∙TA-1 (TA= 362.79 ha) were estimated for BT and 116 696tCO2e∙TA-1(TA = 468.32 ha) for El Sargento. Economic values of these emissions were 131 799.5 USD (World Bank) and 180 357.2 USD (voluntary carbon market) for BT and 221 722.2 USD (World Bank) and 303 409.4 USD (voluntary carbon market) for El Sargento. Conclusions: The highest estimates of C reserves and economic value were recorded at El Sargento. Compared to other studies in the region, both sites had higher avoided CO2e emissions.