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^-1and 191.2 tCO₂e·ha^-1for BT, and 71.7 MgC·ha^-1and 263.2 tCO₂e·ha^-1for El Sargento. By 2020 avoided emissions of 69368.2 tCO₂e·TA-1 (TA = 362.79 ha) were estimated for BT and 116696 tCO₂e·TA-1 (TA = 468.32 ha) for El Sargento. Economic values of these emissions were 131799.5 USD (World Bank) and 180 357.2 USD (voluntary carbon market) for BT and 221722.2 USD (World Bank) and 303409.4 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.