Our Blue Carbon Program

Coastal ecosystems — including mangroves, seagrasses and tidal marshes — are some of the most valuable ecosystems on Earth, offering innumerable benefits to the climate, people and nature.

How we protect blue carbon

For over 15 years, Conservation International has been at the forefront of researching, protecting and conserving blue carbon ecosystems. Together with our partners, we are developing the strategies and tools needed to protect and fully-value coastal ecosystems — and equipping governments to develop policies that protect blue carbon ecosystems and promote their potential for supporting climate change adaptation and resilience.

Partnerships

We believe partnerships — big and small, public and private — are essential to the growth and success of blue carbon as a climate mitigation and adaptation tool. Conservation International leads and engages with a robust, multi-disciplinary network of partners through the following initiatives:

Knowledge and tool building

Conservation International and our partners are building a robust, scientific basis for effective blue carbon policy, financing and management. We work with global experts to develop and synthesize knowledge for standards and tools needed to realize on-the-ground impact.

• In partnership with the government of Singapore and others, Conservation International launched the International Blue Carbon Institute, which focuses on developing global blue carbon knowledge and building the capacity to scale blue carbon projects. The institute plays a vital role in effectively translating cutting-edge science into practical tools and methodologies that are harnessing the potential of blue carbon for climate action.
• Conservation International coordinates the International Blue Carbon Scientific Working Group, an expert group that is advancing essential science for blue carbon. In 2014, the working group developed the Blue Carbon Field Manual, which provides standardized recommendations for carbon measurements and analysis and is translated into Spanish and Mandarin. The working group also co-founded the Coastal Carbon Research Coordination Network to share knowledge on ecosystem processes and carbon cycling in coastal wetlands globally.

Creating innovative funding mechanisms

In close partnership with local communities and governments, Conservation International implements blue carbon projects and financing approaches that are tailored to achieve long-lasting benefits for climate, people and nature.

• At the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, Conservation International and a global coalition of ocean leaders launched the High-Quality Blue Carbon Principles and Guidance. Informed by our experience in pioneering global high-quality blue carbon credits, this first-of-its-kind resource is designed to guide the development and purchasing of high-quality blue carbon projects and credits.
• In 2018, Conservation International and partners launched a blue carbon crediting project on Colombia’s Caribbean coast that fully measures and monetizes the carbon stored by a 11,000-hectare (27,000-acre) mangrove forest. The carbon stores were fully certified in 2021 using the Climate, Community & Biodiversity Standards developed by Verra. The vast majority of revenues — 92 percent — generated from the sale of blue carbon credits is invested in Cispatá Bay’s conservation management plan to protect the mangroves and support the sustainable livelihoods of the 12,000 people who live near the project site. Critically, Vida Manglar provided proof of concept to bring blue carbon markets to scale, with Colombia’s government seeking to replicate this project elsewhere and six other countries exploring similar projects.

Accelerating global policy action for blue carbon

Conservation International works at all levels of government to help create and strengthen policies needed for the effective, long-term conservation and restoration of coastal blue carbon ecosystems.

• Countries all around the world are committed to combating climate change and its impacts. Increasingly, the conservation and restoration of coastal blue carbon ecosystems is being recognized as a high-impact mechanism for countries to reach their individual and collective climate mitigation and adaptation goals.
  
  Approximately 151 countries contain at least one blue carbon ecosystem, and roughly one-third of all countries contain all three — mangroves, seagrasses and tidal marshes. However, less than half of these countries have integrated blue carbon ecosystems in their climate mitigation commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement, leaving significant untapped potential.
• The 195 signatories of the Paris Agreement are required to submit plans for reducing emissions through a mechanism called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). As each country’s NDCs are updated every five years, it is crucial that governments are equipped with all the newest, science-backed information necessary to increase the ambition of their plans. Conservation International and our partners published Guidelines for Blue Carbon and Nationally Determined Contributions to advise countries on the ways coastal blue carbon ecosystems can contribute to achieving their national climate adaptation and mitigation goals. We have worked with the governments of Colombia, Costa Rica, Kenya, Liberia and Madagascar to include blue carbon commitments in their NDCs — and many other countries are following their example.
• Conservation International and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) developed an International Policy Framework for Blue Carbon Ecosystems, which details how blue carbon ecosystem conservation and restoration can be accelerated and strengthened by aligning international polices across the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Sustainable Development Goals and other UN-level goals. The framework seeks to raise countries’ ambitions for protecting their blue carbon ecosystems, accelerate project implementation and align on how collective impacts are measured. We also work with our partners to maintain a Blue Carbon Policy Hub that contains framework updates and a library of policy guidance documents.

On the ground