First Action Plan For World’s Blue Carbon Policy
Durban, South Africa, 6 December 2011 – The
first policy framework outlining activities needed to
include coastal marine areas such as mangroves, tidal
marshes and seagrasses into the work of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), has been
presented in a report by IUCN (International Union for
Conservation of Nature) and Conservation International (CI),
two of the leading members of the Blue Carbon
Initiative.
The report, “Blue Carbon Policy
Framework”, outlines opportunities for including the
conservation of coastal areas in the climate change policies
and financing processes currently being negotiated in
Durban. The study also highlights the need for the
Convention on Biological Diversity, the Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands and the voluntary carbon market to take coastal
marine ecosystems into account.
“The oceans
and marine biodiversity are crucial in regulating the global
climate”, says Carl Gustaf Lundin, Director of
IUCN’s Global Marine and Polar Programme. “Oceans
absorb 93.4% of the heat produced by climate change as well
as one third of human-induced carbon dioxide. Coastal areas
also have an exceptional capacity to store carbon. But
currently natural solutions that the marine world offers to
climate change challenges are rarely taken into account in
international climate change policy.”
The
UNFCCC and the mechanism known as REDD+ (Reducing Emissions
from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, fostering
conservation, sustainable management of forests, and
enhancement of forest carbon stocks), support the
conservation and restoration of terrestrial forests as a way
to reduce the effects of climate change. But the importance
of coastal carbon sinks, such as mangroves, tidal marshes
and seagrasses, is not yet fully recognized by the
Convention.
Although coastal ecosystems cover only
one to two percent of the area covered by forests globally,
improving their management can supplement efforts to reduce
emissions from tropical forest degradation. A square
kilometer of a coastal ecosystem can store up to five times
more carbon than a square kilometer of mature tropical
forests. But currently these areas are being destroyed three
to four times faster than forests, releasing substantial
amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and the ocean,
and contributing to climate change.
“We think
this recognition is critical,” explains report
co-author Dr. Emily Pidgeon, Conservation
International’s Senior Director of Marine Strategic
Initiatives and a leading Blue Carbon conservation
scientist. “The management of carbon in coastal
systems can already be included in a number of UNFCCC and
REDD+ components. This plan was produced to help detail what
we see as key next steps in terms of a full integration of
blue carbon into existing initiatives.”
“We now have scientific evidence that conserving
mangroves, tidal marshes, seagrasses and other blue carbon
habitats is a very precious tool in our fight against
climate change,” says Pierre-Yves Cousteau,
IUCN’s Goodwill Ambassador and founder of Cousteau
Divers, a non-profit organization dedicated to the
protection of the marine world. “These muddy coastal
areas also help us adapt to the changing climate. They
protect local communities from storms and regulate the
quality of coastal water. Increased recognition of their
importance among the climate change community will hopefully
improve the way they’re managed and conserved”
“We need to convince the broader policy community
that blue carbon has a strong scientific basis and that it
should be taken into account as a valuable tool in our suite
of global efforts to confront and adapt to the impacts of
climate change. We also need decision makers to understand
that this tool requires adequate funding to maximize the
many benefits it provides to people,” adds
Pidgeon.
View the report: http://data.iucn.org/dbtw-wpd/edocs/2011-058.pdf
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