From Mangroves to Blue Carbon-Harnessing New Investment in Marine and Coastal Ecosystems

Tracy Stanton on February 10, 2010 Comment

Our colleagues at Forest Trends and the Katoomba Group are moving from the 'ridges to the reefs' working to improve capacity related to markets and payments for ecosystem services (PES) in marine and coastal environments. This latest Katoomba Meeting XVI, in Palo Alto, California is focused on "Building a Blueprint to Harness New Investment for the Protection of Marine and Coastal Ecosystem Services."

More than 140 participants representing NGOs, academia, private foundations, government agencies, and private industry-from insurance, financial, oil and gas to seafood-are gathered at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to lay out the concepts on marine ecosystem services and market-based conservation mechanisms including some early experiences, lessons learned and best practices from the fisheries and freshwater sectors. Rather than an examination of the current state of marine ecosystem markets which has focused on fishery catch shares and quota markets, the agenda orients around developing new financing tools and approaches and expanding the use of market-based mechanisms to other services such as coastline stabilization, beach management, the multiple functions of mangroves and seagrass beds, coastal water quality and ocean carbon storage.

Mangroves have been flagged as an important focus going forward due to the diversity of services they yield: carbon sequestration, as a buffer/stabilizing feature, and for their rich habitat for fish and other marine species. Among the sessions discussing the needs of coastal communities and the roles of both civil society and the private sector in forging new market opportunities, today's session on Blue Carbon and the possibilities of extending terrestrial carbon markets to cover marine carbon is sure to generate significant interest and discussion.

Similar to the ideas in freshwater PES schemes, marine and coastal PES systems and associated market offsets have the potential to achieve significantly better and more cost-effective outcomes than currently result from conservation and management approaches.

Check out the video blogging and pod casts via the Ecosystem Marketplace website: www.ecosystemmarketplace.com. For more details on the Marine Katoomba meeting, visit the Katoomba website: www.katoombagroup.org. For more information about the MARES program at Forest Trends, visit: http://www.forest-trends.org/program.php?id=137.