Integrating blue: How do we make nationally determined contributions work for both blue carbon and local coastal communities?

Amrit Melissa Dencer-Brown, Robyn Shilland, Daniel Friess, Dorothée Herr, Lisa Benson, Nicholas J. Berry, Miguel Cifuentes-Jara, Patrick Colas, Ellyn Damayanti, Elisa López García, Marina Gavaldão, Gabriel Grimsditch, Adam P. Hejnowicz, Jennifer Howard, Sheikh Tawhidul Islam, Hilary Kennedy, Rahma Rashid Kivugo, Joseph K. S. Lang’at, Catherine Lovelock, Ruth Malleson, Peter I. Macreadie, Rosalía Andrade-Medina, Ahmed Mohamed, Emily Pidgeon, Jorge Ramos, Minerva Rosette, Mwanarusi Mwafrica Salim, Eva Schoof, Byomkesh Talukder, Tamara Thomas, Mathew A. Vanderklift & Mark Huxham

Published in ‘Ambio’

Abstract

Blue Carbon Ecosystems (BCEs) help mitigate and adapt to climate change but their integration into policy, such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), remains underdeveloped. Most BCE conservation requires community engagement, hence community-scale projects must be nested within the implementation of NDCs without compromising livelihoods or social justice. Thirty-three experts, drawn from academia, project development and policy, each developed ten key questions for consideration on how to achieve this. These questions were distilled into ten themes, ranked in order of importance, giving three broad categories of people, policy & finance, and science & technology. Critical considerations for success include the need for genuine participation by communities, inclusive project governance, integration of local work into national policies and practices, sustaining livelihoods and income (for example through the voluntary carbon market and/or national Payment for Ecosystem Services and other types of financial compensation schemes) and simplification of carbon accounting and verification methodologies to lower barriers to entry.