Blue Carbon Financing of Mangrove Conservation in the Abidjan Convention Region: A Feasibility Study

Figure 2: Global (top) and West, Central and Southern African (bottom) distribution of seagrasses, salt marshes and mangroves i.e. blue carbon stocks Note: Estuary coverage is used as an approximation for salt marsh coverage Sources: Global Distribution of Mangroves USGS (Giri et al., 2011), UNEP- WCMC Global Distribution of Seagrasses (UNEP-WCMC and Short FT, 2005), Sea Around Us Global Estuary Database (Alder, 2003). Overlaps were determined using ESRI ArcMap 10.3.

Knowledge gaps on the global benefits of mangrove forests in West, Central and Southern Africa. In contrast to a number of other regions represented in Figure 2, relatively little is known about blue carbon stocks in West, Central and Southern Africa, and particularly the region’s mangroves. Available data sets on mangrove coverage reflect different methodologies and are difficult to compare, while information on carbon-storage capacity is often lacking (Hutchison, Manica et al., 2014; Jardine and Siikamäki, 2014). Notably, much of the literature that has emerged in the last decade on blue carbon has omitted the region, despite the presence of significant mangrove forests in many countries.

supported a West Africa Mangrove Initiative (WAMI) from 2007 to 2010, which led to the adoption by six countries of a Mangrove Charter and subsequent national action plans (Diop et al., 2014). In this context, the growing recognition of the overall range of benefits that mangrove forests in West, Central and Southern Africa provide to the international community could provide a new source of support to communities’ and countries’ conservation efforts in the region. However, capturing this opportunity will require a minimum level of key information and knowledge on the global benefits of the region’s mangroves.

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