arine pollution may increase after the construction of several Re-gasified Liquefied Natural Gas (RLNG) terminals on Karachi’s coast. Fishermen in nearby villages Lath Basti, Rehri Goth and Ibrahim Haidry are complaining about loss of livelihoods and the protected mangrove forests.

Private commercial LNG terminals may cause marine pollution and destroy thousands of mangrove trees during the processing of the RLNG. Thousands of trees will be cut during the development process. The companies say they will plant saplings to replace the mangrove trees.

Mangrove forests are considered the breeding area for shrimps and several species of fish. Under the Forest Act 1927 (amended as The Sindh Forest Act 2012), the mangrove forests are protected. Locals say mangrove forests along the Karachi coast have been dwindling for many reasons, including climate change and the disposal of untreated industrial and municipal sewage.

Environmental experts say that mangroves provide a shield against gusty winds and cyclones. Mangroves also reduce the speed of wind and waves and contribute to coastal defence strategies.

Pakistan has been ranked the 38th “most vulnerable” and the 32nd “least ready” country in the world to address climate change impacts. In 2021, the UK Met Office reported that in Pakistan, approximately one million people will be vulnerable to coastal flooding annually by 2070 to 2100 if adaptation measures are not taken.

In recent years, due to various development activities, including land reclamation by the housing authorities, mangrove forests have been diminishing at a faster pace despite claims by some international environmental organisations, like the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) that they have planted new samplings.

The 10 billion trees project of former prime minister Imran Khan had also included plantation of mangrove trees. Under the Rs 125 billion project, the government of Pakistan was to plant 1.5 billion mangrove trees in Sindh. 85,000 acres land in the Indus delta was to be afforested between 2021-24. No official data is available on how many mangrove saplings have been planted so far.

According to some reports, mangrove cover in the Indus delta, including the creeks along Karachi’s coast, has declined over the decades to 82,000 acres from 600,000 acres in the 1980s.These mangrove forests are now facing another threat from the new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals being installed along the Karachi coast.

After the depletion of local natural gas reserves, Pakistan has started relying on imported RLNG to meet the domestic demand for gas. In 2015, it commissioned 4.8 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) Engro Elengy import terminal. This was followed by a 5-mtpa terminal in 2018 owned by the Pakistan GasPort Consortium Limited (PGCL). Both these terminals are offshore floating storage and regasification units (FSRUs) underpinned by guaranteed off-take agreements with the government. In 2020, Pakistan imported 7.4 mtpa of LNG. The government has claimed that the imports will reach 30 mtpa in 2022.

Under the Reduce Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation Project (REDD+) Pakistan has committed to planting mangrove saplings on over 350,000 hectares in the Indus Delta by 2050 to remove an additional 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission.

In January 2021, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) granted licences to a local consortium Energas and a Mitsubishi subsidiary, Tabeer Energy, to import and sell LNG in the country. Their proposed regasification terminals have also received LNG marketing, terminal and pipeline construction, and operational licences from the OGRA.

According to the project document and the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the Tabeer LNG project, 9.8 hectares of mangrove forest will be affected in the creeks near Port Qasim. The company says it will plant new saplings of indigenous mangrove species and will provide $572,040 for the rehabilitation of mangroves. Local communities say that very few of the replantation initiatives in the past have survived. They also fear that the Tabeer LNG Terminal will likely have more than twice the estimated impact.

“We fully acknowledge that mangrove forests have a significant social and environmental role. Based on this acknowledgement and our corporate policy, we have studied and assessed any and every impact our project could have with our experienced environmental consultants,” says a spokesperson for the Sustainability and CSR Department at Mitsubishi Corporation, which is installing the Tabeer LNG Terminal.

The company says that it has obtained the required no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA). “We have voluntarily obtained the support and approval of Sindh Forest Department (SFD) as well as the Sindh Fisheries from the beginning of the EIA process since our basic stance is to value the relevant local society as well as the environment,” says a communique.

But some environmental experts worry about other pollution from these gas terminals. “During the handling of the RLNG, a substantial quantity of methane is leaked. This poses a danger to the environment and marine ecology,” says Yasir Husain, an environmental activist associated with the Green Pakistan Coalition.

He says methane is a climate super-pollutant, more than 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO₂). In 2016, the authors of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2014 assessment had concluded that methane’s impact on global warming was about 25 percent higher than previously estimated.

“Pakistan’s coastal ecosystems have enormous potential to capture and store large amounts of carbon dioxide, for providing cost-effective ‘blue carbon’ solutions,” says Yasir Husain, adding that a rapid blue carbon assessment a few years ago had indicated that the mangrove forests of Pakistan had the potential of storing approximately 20 million tonnes of organic carbon.

Under the Reduce Emission from Deforestation and forest Degradation Project (REDD+) Pakistan has committed itself to planting mangrove saplings on more than 350,000 hectares in the Indus delta by 2050 to remove an additional 25 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission.

According to the Economic Survey of Pakistan 2021-22, Pakistan’s dependence on liquefied natural gas (LNG) has increased in recent years due to depleting indigenous natural gas deposits. Over the past three years, the stock of circular debt in the gas sector has nearly doubled to Rs 650 billion from Rs 350 billion in 2018.

The role of regulators and environmental protection agencies (both federal and provincial) is important. Some activists say that they have been denied access to EIA reports for major RLNG terminal projects.

The author is a senior journalist, currently working as a development communication professional in Karachi