Avaliação ecológico-econômica do manguezal na foz do rio Açu/RN: o sequestro de carbono e a importância da aplicação de práticas preservacionistas

Abstract

This work evaluates the importance of the mangrove ecosystem in the municipalities of Macau, Porto do Mangue and adjacencies, in the Açu River mouth, in the ecological-economic context, and follows investigative exploration of potential areas for projects involving reforestation and/or mangroves forest environmental restoration, with a focus on carbon sequestration. Ecological potential of the mangroves was evaluated based on the Landsat-5 TM satellite imagery and digital image processing techniques that indicated areas of mud and sandy-mud flats with potential for environmental projects, if inserted in the rules of the Kyoto Protocol to Clean Development Mechanisms and the Carbon Market. The results revealed a total of 14,723.75 hectares area of shrimp farms and salt farms production activity that can be leveraged to sustainable environmental and socioeconomic development of the region, since 60% of this area, i.e. about 9,000 hectares, can be used in the planting of the Avicennia, considered the species that best capture atmospheric carbon average value, reaching 59.79 tons/ha of mangrove swamp