State of the Blue Carbon Market

Many countries have already catalyzed major action toward carbon emissions reductions through reducing deforestation, forest degradation, conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+). The opportunities for ocean and coastal ecosystems to complement these mitigation efforts are many and are aided by the extensive experience gained through forest carbon initiatives. However, uptake of conservation and restoration projects in coastal and marine habitats that sequester carbon (collectively called blue carbon, or BC) has been slow and unsteady. Part of this has to do with inherent challenges of doing conservation and restoration in the ocean space. Another factor is the comparatively limited financing available to support BC project development, management, reporting, and verification.

Despite increasing interest in and attention to BC, a recognition exists that the full potential of coastal and marine habitats in mitigating climate change is far from being realized, and that more could be done to catalyze marine initiatives, both in terms of scaling up existing projects and expansion to new geographies. There are identifiable ( article continues at Forest Trends )