Building Blue Carbon Projects - An Introductory Guide

Additionally, as many costal communities are connected to and depend on the services that Blue Carbon ecosystems provide, pursuing a Blue Carbon agenda without considering the full connection of coastal communities to their ecosystems may cause economic hardship and generate political ill-will. Conversely, if ecosystem services are considered and valued, Blue Carbon projects could gain political support and enhance local economies.

Mangroves provide many recreational opportunities such as this mangrove boat tour on Lembongan Island, Indonesia (Image credit Steven J Lutz, GRID-Arendal).

Assessing and Valuing Ecosystem Services

Assessing other services provided alongside carbon sequestration entails understanding the general nature of the mosaic of habitats and how they are inter-linked, assessing their environmental condition to gauge their capacity for ecosystem services generation, and understanding the way these services are valued and perceived in the local context. Ideally an assessment of co-benefits should be supported by targeted ecological and economic studies. However, in many parts of the world, such studies are absent. In these cases, benefits transfer is justified. A process through which basic assessment of ecosystem coverage and condition is tied to economic and social studies on ecosystem services value taken from other locations. However, assumptions in doing such benefits-transfer must be carefully appraised. Once additional ecosystem services beyond Blue Carbon are identified and quantified, some assessment of their economic value can be made. When data or time limitations prevent such a systematic approach, proxy values of Blue Carbon co-benefits being generated from Blue Carbon habitats may be used to develop a Blue Carbon scheme. Such proxy values can be derived from

Building Blue Carbon Projects An Introductory Guide

Page 39