Wednesday, March 30, 2011

World Bank, GEF Project Supports Mangrove Planting in Kiribati

World Bank, GEF Project Supports Mangrove Planting in Kiribati


29 March 2011: Over 37,000 mangrove seedlings have recently been planted on the islands of Aranuka, Butaritari, Maiana, Makin and in North and South Tarawa, Kiribati, as part of a project supported by the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), AusAID and the New Zealand Aid Programme with the aim of reducing Kiribati’s vulnerability to climate change, climate variability and sea level rise.Mangroves, although considered a ‘soft’ option when compared to seawalls, can be one of the most effective forms of coastal protection that also provide a range of other benefits. Mangroves provide ecosystems to other marine species and also act as buffers to storm surges and sea sprays. Aware of the importance of healthy coastal ecosystems, the Government of Kiribati has been promoting mangrove planting in support of national aims outlined in the 2008-2011 Kiribati Development Plan (KDP) and the 2006-2010 Kiribati National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan (NBSAP). To raise awareness on the importance of mangroves in Kiribati, the President of Kiribati recently planted mangroves alongside local youths in South Tarawa.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Scientists Offer Warning and Plan For Protecting Earth's 'Blue Carbon'

Scientists Offer Warning and Plan For Protecting Earth's 'Blue Carbon'

March 24, 2011

Urgent Action Needed To Halt Increasing Carbon Emissions from Destroyed, Degraded Coastal Marine Ecosystems

Arlington, VA / Gland, Switzerland / Paris, France — The destruction of coastal carbon ecosystems, such as mangroves, seagrasses and tidal marshes, is leading to rapid and long-lasting emissions of CO2 into the ocean and atmosphere, according to 32 of the world's leading marine scientists.

That key conclusion highlights a series of warnings and recommendations developed by the new International Working Group on Coastal "Blue" Carbon, which convened its first meeting in Paris last month. The Working Group was created as an initial step in advancing the scientific, management and policy goals of the Blue Carbon Initiative, whose founding members include Conservation International (CI), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO.

Much of the carbon emitted when mangroves, seagrasses or tidal marshes are destroyed is estimated to be thousands of years old because the CO2 stored in these ecosystems is found not only in the plants, but in layer upon layer of soil underneath. Total carbon deposits per square kilometer in these coastal systems may be up to five times the carbon stored in tropical forests, due to their ability to absorb, or sequester, carbon at rates up to 50 times those of the same area of tropical forest. The management of coastal ecosystems can supplement efforts to reduce emissions from tropical forest degradation.

According to recommendations from scientists in the Blue Carbon Working Group, whose collaboration pools expertise from 11 countries on five different continents, the existing knowledge of carbon stocks and emissions from degraded or converted coastal ecosystems is "sufficient to warrant enhanced management actions now."

Dr. Emily Pidgeon, Marine Climate Change Director at Conservation International, and a leading blue carbon conservation scientist emphasized, "We have known for some time the importance of coastal ecosystems for fisheries and for coastal protection from storms and tsunamis. We are now learning that, if destroyed or degraded, these coastal ecosystems become major emitters of CO2 for years after the plants are removed. In the simplest terms, it's like a long slow bleed that is difficult to clot. So we need to urgently halt the loss of these high carbon ecosystems, to slow the progression of climate change."

Draining a typical coastal wetland, such as a mangrove or marsh, releases 0.25 million tons of carbon dioxide per square kilometer for every meter of soil that's lost. Global data shows that seagrasses, tidal marshes, and mangroves are being degraded or destroyed along the world's coastlines at a rapid pace. In fact, between 1980 and 2005, 35,000 square kilometers of mangroves were removed globally – an area the size of the nation of Belgium. This degraded area still continues to release up to 0.175 gigatons of carbon dioxide each year — equivalent to the annual emissions of countries such as the Netherlands or Venezuela.

IOC Assistant Director-General and Executive Secretary Wendy Watson-Wright added, "Scientific studies have shown that although mangroves, seagrasses and salt marshes account for less than 1 percent of the total plant biomass on land and forests, they cycle almost the same amount of carbon as the remaining 99 percent. So the decline of these carbon-efficient ecosystems is a valid cause of concern."

Over the course of three days in Paris, scientists concluded the meeting with a set of key priorities and recommendations:

* Enhanced national and international research efforts: such as developing inventory and accounting methodologies for coastal carbon; conducting carbon inventories, conducting targeted research and monitoring to more accurately quantity the greenhouse gas emissions from coastal ecosystem loss, and establishing a network of field demonstrations to build capacity and community input.
* Enhanced local and regional management practices: such as identifying and reducing the primary drivers of high-carbon coastal system degradation, (urban development, agriculture, aquaculture, pollutant and nutrient run-off, dredging, and introduction of artificial constructions), strengthening national to local conservation and protection measures of high-carbon coastal systems, and beginning restoration of lost/degraded systems
* Enhanced international recognition of coastal carbon ecosystems: through established international bodies such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Scientists emphasized that improved management of coastal marine ecosystems is not meant to become a patent roadblock to nations' economic development or food production, but rather, a targeted strategy that prioritizes conservation of specific, unique, high-carbon coastal zones, which act like global sponges for global CO2. They are recommending that nations and managers better recognize the vital services that these wetlands provide humanity, and prioritize their protection.

"The capacity of coastal wetlands to reduce climate change by capturing and storing carbon dioxide is considerable, but has been overlooked" says Jerker Tamelander, Oceans and Climate Change Manager for IUCN. "If valued and managed properly, coastal ecosystems can help many countries meet their mitigation targets, while supporting adaptation in vulnerable coastal areas."

The working group will meet next in August, and continue their collaborative scientific study. Funding for the group has been provided by the Waterloo Foundation, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

To view the scientists full recommendations, visit:

Images available for download and use by media with proper credit:

(above photo: © Conservation International/ photo by Sterling Zumbrunn)

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Conserving coastal ecosystems to combat climate change

Conserving coastal ecosystems to combat climate change


March 15, 2011 | 12:08 PM | By Heather Goldstone

Salt marshes, sea grass beds, and coastal mangrove forests can sequester five times as much carbon as tropical forests (flickr/slack12).

You’ve probably never heard of “blue carbon.” Don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. But it’s worth getting acquainted with.

Basically, it’s the idea that ocean and coastal ecosystems can absorb and trap carbon dioxide that contributes to climate change. In fact, over at SciAm, Robynne Boyd explains that mangrove forests, salt marshes, and sea grasses can hold five times more carbon than tropical forests that typically get more attention.

Because they hold so much carbon, destroying them can release substantial amounts of CO2. People around the world wreck coastal habitats through aquaculture, agriculture, timber extraction and real estate development. To date, human encroachment has destroyed more than 35 percent of mangroves, 30 percent of sea grass meadows and 20 percent of salt marshes.

Stopping such destruction could therefore become an important element in confronting climate change. “Blue carbon is a source of emissions that hasn’t been addressed by the climate community and therefore creates an opportunity to reduce emissions,” says Roger Ullman, executive director of the Linden Trust for Conservation in New York City, which promotes the use of conservation finance and environmental markets. “These fabulous ecosystems…don’t cover a very large expanse of territory, yet still provide enormously important services to humanity and are being destroyed three or four times faster than the rate of tropical forests.”

If Boyd’s introduction to the science and policy of blue carbon piques your interest, check out Steven Lutz’s Blue Carbon Blog – a great source of news on the topic.
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Thanks for the plug Heather! - Steven

Friday, March 11, 2011

Blue Carbon: An Oceanic Opportunity to Fight Climate Change

MIGHTY MANGROVE: Mangroves, salt marshes and sea grasses soak up five times more carbon than tropical forests  Image: ©iStockphoto.com / Sara Winter

Blue Carbon: An Oceanic Opportunity to Fight Climate Change

Mangroves, salt marshes and sea grasses soak up to five times more carbon than tropical forests, making their conservation critical


By Robynne Boyd | March 10, 2011

Mangroves are tangled orchards of spindly shrubs that thrive in the interface between land and sea. They bloom in muddy soil where the water is briny and shallow, and the air muggy. Salt marshes and sea grasses also flourish in these brackish hinterlands. Worldwide, these coastal habitats are recognized for their natural beauty and ability to filter pollution, house fish nurseries and buffer shorelines against storms.

Less known is their ability to sequester vast amounts of carbon—up to five times that stored in tropical forests. Dubbed "blue carbon" because of their littoral environment, these previously undervalued coastal carbon sinks are beginning to gain attention from the climate and conservation communities.

Because they hold so much carbon, destroying them can release substantial amounts of CO2. People around the world wreck coastal habitats through aquaculture, agriculture, timber extraction and real estate development. To date, human encroachment has destroyed more than 35 percent of mangroves, 30 percent of sea grass meadows and 20 percent of salt marshes.

Stopping such destruction could therefore become an important element in confronting climate change. "Blue carbon is a source of emissions that hasn't been addressed by the climate community and therefore creates an opportunity to reduce emissions," says Roger Ullman, executive director of the Linden Trust for Conservation in New York City, which promotes the use of conservation finance and environmental markets. "These fabulous ecosystems…don't cover a very large expanse of territory, yet still provide enormously important services to humanity and are being destroyed three or four times faster than the rate of tropical forests."

Emissions from wetlands destruction
Case in point is California's Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, explains Dan Laffoley, marine vice chairman of the World Commission on Protected Areas at the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Over the last 100 years, 1,800 square kilometers of wetlands were drained, emitting two gigatons of CO2 that had been accruing in the plants and soils for thousands of years. Between 10 million and 15 million tons of CO2 continues to be released from the Sacramento Delta each year, an amount equivalent to around 3 percent of California's total greenhouse gas emissions.

At the global scale, coastal wetland destruction could account for 1 to 3 percent of industrial emissions; a number that will increase along with coastal wetland destruction. "In 2011 we have a reason why mud is important," Laffoley says.

Even so, almost all coastal and marine system research and exploration is about a decade behind its terrestrial counterpart. People have focused on understanding the surrounding lands, rather than the unseen animals, plants and processes below the ocean's surface, explains Emily Pidgeon, director of the Marine Climate Change Program for Conservation International. The ocean is more dynamic and its systems generally more complicated to access and understand than land-based ecosystems, such as forests.

Take remote sensing, for example. Most approaches, including satellite-based systems, cannot see underwater. So whereas these methods very effectively provide data that enable scientists to estimate the amount of carbon in forests, they cannot get the equivalent information on the carbon load of sea grasses or other submerged marine ecosystems, especially in sediment where most of the CO2 in blue carbon systems is stored. Instead, scientists are required to go to sites and dig up meters of the sediment to measure how much carbon it holds—a thankless task, to be sure.

"Mangroves are as unsexy as you get, since you ride a boat through them and get covered in mosquitoes," Pidgeon says.

Green cash for blue carbon
Getting local communities to save their mangroves will depend on economics. Land managers, farmers and other developers often opt to control these watery landscapes, thereby transforming them into income-generating acreage, such as a shrimp farm or rice paddy. The carbon markets, with their carbon credits selling between $15 to $20 per ton, could offer an alternative. The fees would encourage land conservation, which would prevent the release of carbon into the atmosphere, and the markets would reward them for mitigating climate change.

Whereas many of these programs are at least three to five years in the future, the preliminary economics looks like it could work, especially in certain cases to preserve these fragile ecosystems, such as avoiding the conversion of mangroves to shrimp farms in the Indo-Pacific region.

Still, the main hope for conserving these coastal habitats lies in a combination of economics and science. The first step is recognizing the importance of coastal carbon pools as a significant tool for climate mitigation, says Stephen Crooks, a wetlands expert who is climate change program manager of ESA PWA, a San Francisco–based environmental consulting and engineering firm.

Even without carbon markets nations have obligations to manage their greenhouse gas emissions, which means that the carbon in these coastal habitats can be tallied in national accounts as a way of contributing to their management of global greenhouse emissions. This would be especially helpful in the Coral Triangle (an oceanic area between Southeast Asia and northern Australia that encompasses Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands) as well as Bangladesh, Indonesia and China, where coastal habitats are being destroyed at an alarming rate. Companies could also start volunteering to launch socially and environmentally friendly coastal habitat projects in the name of climate protection.

The final prong would be the creation of international carbon markets. As Crooks puts it: "One day the biggest bang for your buck may come from conservation."