Mangroves, best carbon storage to mitigate climate change

Prof. Nenibarini Zabbey, Project Coordinator, Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP), says Mangroves are best sequesters of carbon which mitigate climate change. Zabbey spoke with newsmen on Friday in Abuja while showcasing HYPREP's efforts in combating climate change in the country. According to him, mangrove system is crucial in addressing climate change. 'Our mangrove restoration project is the world's largest in an oil degraded environment; we have environment vanguards provided with catalytic funds to plant mangrove seedlings.'' He said that the mangrove system of restoring spillage areas was the best globally and five times better than tropical rainforest. 'HYPREP is committed to enhancing the capacity of the local people; we build the capacity of the local people which we refer to as environment vanguards.' Zabbey said that the cleaning up of Ogoni land comprised 2000 hectares of both the medium risk site and a complex high risk site oil degraded area. He said there was a pilot proj ect of 560 hectares in which the community people was fully involved in planting more mangroves. 'As part of our broad livelihood programme at the moment, we have also trained no fewer than 5,000 youth and women because we want to create a sustainable livelihood for them. 'We are at the same time, restoring the environment in order to resuscitate the traditional livelihoods of the people which is basically fishing and farming,' he said. Source: News Agency of Nigeria