Author:
Utomo S W,Pambudi P A,Pramudianto A,Sudaryanto
Abstract
Abstract
Climate change is the challenge provided with the most attention within all circles in the 21st century. This phenomenon allegedly originates due to the increasing concentrations of CO2 gas in the atmosphere. Therefore, efforts are continually designed to slow down or halt the process to avoid significantly impacting life on earth. The common mitigation approach is by encouraging the planting of trees to optimize CO2 sequestration. This study, therefore, aimed to determine the CO2 sequestration capacity of Aquilaria malaccensis in natural forests and plantations. Particularly, Aquilaria malaccensis is an endemic plant of Indonesia’s tropical forests, with critical or endangered status. The allometric method was adopted, with purposive and non-destructive sampling techniques, then a multilevel plot was used during CO2 sequestration analysis. This plant species absorbed the gas at the tree category in natural forests (9.57 tons CO2 eq/year), and similarly with plantation forests (2.35 tons CO2 eq/year). The tree biomass category in natural forests (5.22 tons CO2 eq/year), and plantations (1.28 tons CO2 eq/year), alongside the pole category in natural forests (1.9 x 10-3 tons CO2 eq/year) rank lowest. The carbon content in the tree category ranked highest at the natural (2.61 tons CO2 eq/year), compared to plantation forests (0.64 tons CO2 eq/year), while the carbon composition in pole category at the natural and plantation forests were (9.8 x 10-4 tons CO2 eq/year) and (2.2 x 10-3 tons CO2 eq/year), respectively.