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Building Blue Carbon Projects
An Introductory Guide
8.6
The GEF Blue Forests Project
The Global Environment Facility’s (GEF) Blue Forest
Project presents a global milestone opportunity for
advancing the blue forests concept - the sustainable
financing of coastal ecosystem management through
values associated with carbon and wider ecosystem
services. The project will achieve this through a
coordinated
international
approach
combining
research, policy development, technical advice and
practical tools coupled with small-scale interventions
(i.e., demonstration projects). The project will build on
existing initiatives and projects to become a major
global driver through proving the concept on the
ground and it’s up-scaling internationally.
The Blue Forests Project is a four year UNEP proposal
focused on exploring carbon storage and sequestration
and the valuation of other ecosystem services for ‘blue
forests’ ecosystems (i.e., Blue Carbon ecosystems)
globally and how these values can be used to support
sustainable and improved ecosystem management.
The GEF project also focuses on addressing key
knowledge gaps related to the valuation of carbon and
related blue forests ecosystem services and the global
uptake of methodologies and approaches developed in
the project allowing for replication in other sites and
mainstreaming into international policy, including
through the GEF International Waters platform.
This major global initiative serves as an umbrella project, in which the concept of blue forests is
explored through a series of shared experiences. The small-scale interventions will be supported
by a project component focussed on providing support and local-scale guidance for carbon
assessment, ecosystem services valuation and policy uptake.
GEF-funded interventions are located in Ecuador, Mozambique, Indonesia, Madagascar (Figure
14). The Abu Dhabi Blue Carbon Demonstration Project contributes to the Blue Forests Project as
its featured intervention for the United Arab Emirates and is provided through 100% co-finance.
The Blue Forests Project is expected to build further on the lessons learned in the Abu Dhabi Blue
Carbon exploration and replicate successes. Replication and up-scaling activities are also planned
in Kenya and Central America.
The Blue Forests Project was endorsed by the GEF in February 2014.
Partners of the GEF Blue Forests
Project
United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP)
GRID-Arendal
UNEP World Conservation Monitoring
Centre (UNEP-WCMC)
International Union for Conservation of
Nature (IUCN)
Blue Ventures
Conservation International
World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Abu Dhabi Global Environmental Data
Initiative (AGEDI)
Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries-
Indonesia
UNEP Regional Office for Latin America
and the Caribbean (UNEP-ROLAC)
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA)
US Forest Service
Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research
Institute (KMFRI)
South African Institute of International
Affairs (SAIIA)
The Ocean Foundation
Duke University
Stockholm University
Charles Darwin University
