The environmental group Wildcoast is being honored for its work on protecting climate fighting mangrove forests and other coastal ecosystems off the coast of Baja California.
Wildcoast was one of 10 recipients of the 2019 Keeling Curve Prize, which provides $25,000 each to projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or increase carbon uptake.
"They (mangroves) not only store the carbon within the plant itself but they have an intricate root system that deposits it in the vast soil area around it. And the science shows that these desert mangroves in Mexico sequester up to five times more carbon than tropical mangroves," said Zach Plopper, conservation director at Wildcoast.
Since 2008, Wildcoast has been working with the Mexican national park service to protect thousands of acres of mangroves throughout northwest Mexico.
Wildcoast estimates that the 39,000 acres of mangroves in that region store about 19.5 million metric tons of carbon. Plopper said that's equal to about one million peoples' annual carbon emissions.
Plopper joins Midday Edition Tuesday to discuss the role of mangroves in the fight against climate change.
