Efforts to mitigate the impacts of climate change have focused largely on the protection of tropical forests like the Amazon Rainforest, important carbon sinks that can store between 60 and 230 metric tons of carbon per hectare. But elsewhere in Latin America, other ecosystems have been overlooked by international decision-makers, despite science recognizing their key role in preventing greenhouse gas emissions and the fact that many of them store even more carbon, hectare for hectare, than tropical forests. A team from Mongabay Latam traveled to several countries in the region to draw attention to these forgotten land- and seascapes: páramos, coastal wetlands, peatlands, mangroves and seagrass meadows — key ecosystems and invaluable carbon deposits. These six stories show how communities, organizations and scientists are coming together to preserve and study these vital ecosystems, whose potential in the fight against climate change remains underappreciated. The IOV team surveying a Thalassia seagrass meadow. Image courtesy of Mayré Jiménez. Putting a spotlight on páramos, coastal wetlands and seagrasses In the fight against climate change, every ecosystem counts. Preventing carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere is crucial to preventing, or at least containing and limiting, global warming. The Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, seeks to limit the global temperature rise to less than 2° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, ideally capping it at 1.5°C (2.7°F). However, the world remains far off this target. Countries have presented their emissions reduction plans, known as their nationally determined contributions (NDCs),…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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