In News: In the Union Budget 2023-24 presented on Wednesday (February 1), Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a new MISHTI scheme.
MISHTI scheme
Building on India’s success in afforestation, ‘Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes’, MISHTI, will be taken up for mangrove plantation along the coastline and on salt pan lands, wherever feasible, through convergence between MGNREGS, CAMPA Fund and other sources.
Why mangroves?
Mangrove forests — consisting of trees and shrub that live in intertidal water in coastal areas — host diverse marine life.
They also support a rich food web, with molluscs and algae-filled substrate acting as a breeding ground for small fish, mud crabs and shrimps, thus providing a livelihood to local artisanal fishers.
They act as effective carbon stores, holding up to four times the amount of carbon as other forested ecosystems
Mangrove forests capture vast amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and their preservation can both aid in removal of carbon from the atmosphere and prevent the release of the same upon their destruction.
Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC)
Launched at the 27th session of Conference of Parties (COP27) UN climate summit, with India as a partner.
An initiative led by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Indonesia, the Mangrove Alliance for Climate (MAC) includes India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Japan, and Spain.
It seeks to educate and spread awareness worldwide on the role of mangroves in curbing global warming and its potential as a solution for climate change.
The current state of the mangroves
South Asia houses some of the most extensive areas of mangroves globally, while Indonesia hosts one-fifth of the overall amount.
India holds around 3 per centof South Asia’s mangrove population.
Besides the Sundarbans in West Bengal, the Andamans region, the Kachchh and Jamnagar areas in Gujarat too have substantial mangrove cover.
