11. Afforestation and promotion to wetlands

The issue of raising mangrove forests in the coastal areas of the district, particularly in Manakudi estuary, with an intention to minimize nature's fury in the future was discussed here recently.

Presiding over a meeting, attended by officials, members of non-governmental organisation and Green Coast, District Forest Officer Sundarajan said the 2004 tsunami reiterated the importance of erecting barriers to reduce the damage caused by natural calamities. The coastal population had demanded structures that would protect them in such situations.

While different types of man-made barriers were considered, natural variety such as mangrove forests emerged as a sensible choice. The forests not only helped in situations such as tsunami or cyclone, but also in reducing soil erosion. [1]

In some circumstances, deforestation and degradation can be delayed or reduced through complete protection of forests (Soares-Filho et al., 2006), sustainable forest management policies and practices, or by providing economic returns from non-timber forest products and forest uses not involving tree removal (e.g., tourism). Protecting forest from all harvest typically results in maintained or increased forest carbon stocks, but also reduces the wood and land supply to meet other societal needs.
 

Reduced deforestation and degradation is the forest mitigation option with the largest and most immediate carbon stock impact in the short term per ha and per year globally and global mitigation assessments below), because large carbon stocks (about 350-900 tCO2/ha) are not emitted when deforestation is prevented. The mitigation costs of reduced deforestation depend on the cause of deforestation (timber or fuelwood extraction, conversion to agriculture, settlement, or infrastructure), the associated returns from the non-forest land use, the returns from potential alternative forest uses, and on any compensation paid to the individual or institutional landowner to change land-use practices. These costs vary by country and region (Sathaye et al., 2007), as discussed below. [2]
 
Wet land act as bio-shield protect the land from rising sea level. Growing wet land helps in reducing land erosion in coastal areas. Therefore, its promotion is always beneficial.
Wetland services with strong linkages to human wellbeing include:

• Water purification and detoxification of wastes: Wetlands, and in particular marshes, play a major role in treating and detoxifying a variety of waste products. Some wetlands have been found to reduce the concentration of nitrate by more than 80 per cent.
• Climate regulation: One of the most important roles of wetlands may be in the regulation of global climate change through sequestering and releasing a major proportion of fixed carbon in the biosphere. For example, although covering only an estimated 3-4 per cent of the world's land area, peatlands are estimated to hold 540 gigatons of carbon, representing about 1.5 per cent of the total estimated global carbon storage and about 25-30 per cent of that contained in terrestrial vegetation and soils.