Comparative study of carbon stocks between protected and unprotected mangrove area at Inanam-Likas River Basin, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah / Rozaini Abdul Malik

Mangroves ecosystem plays important role in trapping carbon dioxide in the form of biomass as if it is not stored and released into the air, it may cause greenhouse gases effect that may lead to global warming, this is cause by anthropogenic activities, pollution, land use and land - cover. This study is significant for future researcher in same field to monitor carbon stocks of these study areas, awareness campaign to community on the importance of protecting mangroves for environment and to management in aiding them to implement rules and regulation in protecting mangroves ecosystems. This study was conducted at Inanam-Likas River Basin, specifically pointed at two different places and environment comprises protected areas at KK Wetlands and unprotected areas at Kg. Bangka - Bangka which aimed at comparing carbon stocks of protected and unprotected mangrove ecosystems. Carbon stocks pools that are compared between the study sites comprise aboveground carbon stocks including live tree, while belowground carbon stocks including roots and soils. The result of this study shows that there is ecosystem carbon stocks difference between protected and unprotected mangroves with statistical analysis value which is K W x²: 0.275, p < 0.05. As the x² value below p< 0.05 indicating carbon stocks value obtained showed protected areas have higher ecosystem carbon stocks value compared to unprotected area with 546.8 Mg C ha⁻¹ and 439.4 Mg C ha⁻¹ respectively. The difference in ecosystem carbon stocks value indicates protected areas is well managed and conserved as there is rules and regulation implemented to protect mangrove ecosystem compared to unprotected areas, where the community there use the mangrove vigorously without noticing the effect to the community and environment especially in the future.