Mangrove biomass and carbon estimates for REDD plus from national forest inventory in two regions of Myanmar

Myanmar has the second largest area of mangrove forests in South East Asia while suffering high deforestation rates and forest degradation. However, monitoring results from existing studies in mangrove forests vary widely while specific estimates on carbon density for this forest type are deficient. Also, data from mangrove inventory plots used for the 2018 Myanmar forest reference level refer only to commercial timber and do not include other carbon pools. The results in this study based on four carbon pools allow for updating the emission factors in mangrove forests expressed in CO2 from 125.43 +/- 15.06 Mg ha(-1) to 1 377.07 +/- 67.04 Mg ha(-1) for Ayeyarwady region (Pyapon, Pathein, Latputta districts) and 1 583.27 +/- 75.18 Mg ha(-1) for Tanintharyi region (Kawthaung, Dawei districts) and can be used in (sub)national or jurisdictional forest reference level for REDD+. In addition, the georeferenced biomass estimates are useful for the calibration of space-based models of biomass estimation.