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Building Blue Carbon Projects
An Introductory Guide
1.6
Status of Blue Carbon Policy
The development of Blue Carbon policies is relatively recent, with few countries currently having
detailed laws and regulations in place to promote the evaluation of environmental services or
payments for such services in marine and coastal regions (Climate Focus, 2011)
1
.
In general terms, the promotion of Blue Carbon policies is likely to be most effective within the
broader context of support for marine spatial planning and ecosystem-based management.
Several countries and states are at the forefront of such approaches, including Australia, Belize,
Vanuatu, and British Columbia in Canada. Valuable lessons can be learned from their experiences.
While international Blue Carbon policies may emerge in the future, there is currently considerable
scope for improving the ability to assess the value of Blue Carbon ecosystem services and to
report on these at the national level within the framework of the IPCC requirements. Thus, there
is a need for policies that support research on such data information and analysis, and
engagement with the IPCC to clarify how best to include Blue Carbon ecosystems within the
associated national reporting requirements going forward.
In the short- to medium-term, for those seeking to promote Blue Carbon initiatives with reference
to international regulatory frameworks, it is likely to be more productive to do so by including Blue
Carbon ecosystems within the development of Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs)
and or reduced emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, including the role of
conservation, sustainable forest management, and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks
(REDD+), given that both approaches are already making good progress in multiple country
settings.
NAMAs can encompass all Blue Carbon ecosystems, including seagrasses, while REDD+ is limited
to mangroves that meets national forest definitions. Where the potential for using a REDD+
approach is applicable, a precursor is the development of a policy that includes mangroves within
such national definitions, where appropriate. In many circumstances, it is likely to be more
effective to include support for the reduced emissions from mangrove forests within a broader
jurisdictional approach, rather than project by project. This approach, referred to as “jurisdictional
nested REDD” (JNR), is generating considerable interest on the part of several important climate
change actors.
Under either a NAMA or REDD+ approach it should be possible for developing countries to seek
access to so called “Fast Start Finance” to support a range of readiness activities and or to
implement pilot activities.
Blue Carbon projects can also be promoted with reference to international voluntary carbon
markets, where several existing standards and methodologies already include the conservation,
avoided deforestation and conversion, and restoration of such ecosystems.
1
Note that the text in this section is a summary of the key messages described in
Blue Carbon Policy Options Assessment
(Climate
Focus, 2011).
