Building Blue Carbon Projects - An Introductory Guide

8.4 An Integrated Blue Carbon Program for the Indonesian Archipelago

Indonesia features vast Blue Carbon and associated ecosystems, mangroves in particular. Yet Indonesia’s mangrove  forests  are also among the  world’s  most  threatened  habitats.  Annually,   three-to-seven per  cent of  Indonesia’s mangroves   are degraded by dredging, deforestation, aquaculture, and unsustainable use by local fishermen  (Hutahaean,  2012).  Indonesia’s seagrass beds are also threatened and it is estimated that about 30-40 per cent of its seagrass beds have been lost (UNEP, 2004). A  research  team  from  Indonesia’s  Agency  for   Research and Development of Marine and Fisheries has been overseeing a field project across four sites within the Indonesian archipelago (including Derawan Islands - East Kalimatan, Tomini Bay - North Sulawesi, Banten Bay and Tanjung Lesung - Banten) to study mangroves and seagrass ecosystems. This Blue Carbon project has been funded by the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Republic of Indonesia. This research seeks to promote the sustainable management of those ecosystems, by first establishing a robust scientific case about their carbon sequestration and storage capacities. Teams of local scientists and researchers have collected samples of mangrove and seagrass biomass and sediment for analysis of their carbon content and sequestration ability. The team collected samples from different types of sites, both rehabilitated and intact mangroves. Analysing these sites for comparison allows scientists to better understand the sequestration abilities in relationship to land conversion.

Measuring trunk diameter at breast height (DBH) of mangrove ecosystem in Derawan Islands, East Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Quadrant transect for observing seagrass ecosystem in Tomini Bay of North Sulawesi, Indonesia (Images credit BALITBANG KP.).

The field team also carried out extensive mapping activities of both types of ecosystems, in order to conduct spatial analysis for the extent and ecosystem degradation over time. One of the challenges here is obtaining good quality remote sensing images for seagrasses. Thus, an aim of

Building Blue Carbon Projects An Introductory Guide

Page 59