A Blue-Green research team led by Professors Tian Peipei and Zhong Honglin from Shandong University’s Weihai Institute for Interdisciplinary Research has recently made significant progress in consumer supply chain management, in collaboration with several domestic and international teams. The related findings, titled “Mapping mangrove deforestation and blue carbon loss in global supply chains between 2000 and 2019”, have been published online in One Earth, a sister journal of Cell. Ph.D. candidate Ge Naishun and postdoctoral researcher Xin Yu from Shandong University are co-first authors of the paper. Professors Tian Peipei and Zhong Honglin from Shandong University, along with Professor Feng Kuishuang from the University of Maryland, serve as co-corresponding authors, with Professor Tian Peipei acting as the lead contact. Other key collaborators include Professor Zhang Zengkai from Xiamen University. Shandong University is listed as the first affiliated institution.
Mangrove forests absorb and sequester substantial amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, making them critical blue carbon ecosystems. However, due to human production activities, global mangrove area is rapidly declining, resulting in significant losses of this blue carbon reservoir. Yet, the link between mangrove-loss-driving production activities and global supply chain consumption remains unclear, leading to inadequate mangrove management measures targeting the consumption side. Therefore, establishing the connection between production-driven mangrove loss and global supply chain consumption, and subsequently proposing mangrove conservation strategies from the perspectives of supply chains and consumption, represents a key approach to mitigating mangrove degradation.
To address this issue, the research integrated a mangrove area loss dataset, a mangrove carbon stock dataset, and multiple sources of high-resolution land-use spatial data. Based on this integrated data, this study calculated the global mangrove destruction area and corresponding blue carbon loss caused by ten industries—including shrimp farming, forestry, and mining—between 2000 and 2019. By matching production activities with the GLORIA input-output database, the research established a link between mangrove loss and global consumption, thereby identifying the final consumers and supply chain sectors responsible for driving blue carbon loss in mangrove ecosystems.
Figure 1. Total amount, causes, and intensities of global mangrove carbon loss.
Figure 2. Amount and sources of global consumers’ mangrove blue carbon footprints.
Figure 3. Contribution of global (A), domestic (B), and foreign (C) consumers to global and local mangrove loss.
The findings reveal that human production activities caused global mangrove blue carbon losses amounting to approximately 235 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent. In Southeast Asia, aquaculture and crop cultivation are major causes of mangrove loss, while forestry and mining are key drivers of mangrove loss in Africa and Latin America (Figure 1). About 70% of the loss of mangrove blue carbon is caused by consumption in Southeast Asia, while 19% of mangrove blue carbon footprints are embodied in goods imported from developing countries into high-income regions, such as North America and Europe (Figure 2). The research also found that while domestic blue carbon loss footprints are embodied in mainly primary products, the majority of blue carbon loss caused by international trade is embodied in consumption of downstream products. This study provides important theoretical and data support for strengthening sustainable supply chain management and formulating more comprehensive and effective mangrove conservation measures.
This research is supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFC3105304), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72303136, 72174111), and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (Grant No. ZR2021MG013, ZR2023QG002).
Full text link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.onegar.2025.101357
