Building Blue Carbon Projects - An Introductory Guide

Seagrass beds provide critical habitat for many important commercial and recreational fisheries such as the Florida stone crab, pictured here in Biscayne Bay, Florida (Image credit Steven J Lutz, GRID-Arendal).

The many ecosystem functions and services that coastal and marine ecosystems provide are tightly interlinked. For example, by conserving mangroves of other coastal ecosystems to maximise Blue Carbon, broader biodiversity is protected; fish habitats remain intact, leading to increased fisheries production; the natural waste processing function of wetlands is maintained, leading to better water quality; coastal zones are better buffered from the potential damaging impacts of storms; and opportunities for improving coastally-dependent livelihoods can be realized. These ecosystem services are thus co-benefits to Blue Carbon and in turn, Blue Carbon is a co-benefit of these other services. A combined Blue Carbon and ecosystem services approach may be necessary to secure the sustainable management of Blue Carbon ecosystems. Blue Carbon by itself may not generate enough funds to support the sustainable financing of conservation efforts, due to potentially high opportunity costs associated with coastal land, the high transaction costs associated with these types of projects (development, verification, and monitoring costs may outweigh carbon revenue), and a relatively low current price of carbon on the carbon market. A bundled or combined approach with payments for other ecosystem services may be necessary to ensure long-term sustainable financing and management. A Combined Blue Carbon and Ecosystem Services Approach

Building Blue Carbon Projects An Introductory Guide

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