Blue Carbon Stock of the Dominant Mangrove Species in Zanzibar - Tanzania

This study is aimed at quantifying the above ground and below ground blue carbon stocks of three dominant mangroves namely Avicenia marina, Bruguiera gymnorrhiza and Rhizophora mucronata in the Uzi - Nyeke mangroves forest, Zanzibar, during 2020. It used an allometric method for biomass determination where diameter at breast height (DBH) and tree height (TH) were measured as dependent variables. Biomass were then used to calculate the carbon contents both above ground and below ground tree parties. A. marina contributed highest carbon content of 59.93% of the total average carbon content followed by R. mucronata 20.74% and B. gymnorrhiza 19.33%. Based on carbon parties A. marina contributed the highest average value of carbon content in above ground (AGC) of 3338 Mg C ha - 1 (70.70%) than the rest sampled mangrove species. The average carbon content of below ground tree part (BGC) had been highly contributed by R. mucronata 700 Mg C ha - 1 (39.35%) preceded by A. marina 557 Mg C ha - 1 (31.34%) and B. gymnorrhiza 521 Mg C ha - 1 (29.34%). We conclude that for rising carbon stock capacity in mangrove ecosystem of Zanzibar, more conservation efforts are needed by the community including shifting to non - destructive forest demands such as bee keeping, eco - tourism, seaweed and fish farming. Implementing above conservation effort could provide better opportunity for carbon stocking as well as improving blue economy.