“The restoration of mangrove forests is a nice thing to do but who’s going to pay for it?” says Steven Lutz, Blue Carbon Lead at GRID-Arendal and Coordinator of the Global Environment Facility Blue Forests Project. “One option we are exploring is how payments for mangrove carbon could support healthy forests and coastal livelihoods.”
UNEP and partners have recently been involved in successful “mangrove carbon” finance projects in Kenya, and Madagascar under the Blue Forests Project.
These projects link mangrove forests to the global carbon market, with payments for mangrove carbon supporting the planting and conservation of mangrove trees and other benefits to the local communities. UNEP is currently supporting an exploration of how to similarly link seagrass ecosystems to the carbon market in Kenya.
As the world’s only examples of successful community-based mangrove carbon finance projects, the Kenya and Madagascar experiences were profiled last month at the Indian Ocean Blue Carbon Hub Inaugural Think Tank workshop in Mauritius. Results of the workshop included recognition that biodiversity and other ecosystem benefits, including carbon sequestration, are vital for advancing a nature-based healthy blue economy.
In Ecuador, the Blue Forests Project has supported Conservation International’s engagement with the government and local communities in setting up mangrove conservation agreements. Under the “socio manglar” programme, indigenous communities are given economic incentives—based on the rich biodiversity that mangrove’s support—to commit to the conservation and protection of mangrove forests. In this case, the communities gain exclusive use of the red mangrove crab and black cockle, both lucrative national fisheries.
“Restoration is not a quick win. Considerable financial resources and sustained buy-in from local communities over many years are needed for successful restoration projects,” says Isabelle Vanderbeck, a UNEP marine ecosystems expert working closely with the Global Environment Facility on mangrove restoration projects.
A Resolution adopted by the United Nations Environment Assembly on 15 March 2019 “encourages Member States to improve research, education and public awareness, build capacity for the sustainable management and restoration of mangroves and related ecosystems, and, to that end, consider ways in which to mobilize the necessary resources for developing countries.”