Today in Brussels, Belgium, Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Struan Stevenson chaired a symposium on "Blue Carbon – Managing coastal ecosystems for climate change mitigation.” MEP Stevenson is the Chair of the European Parliament (EP) Intergroup “Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainable Development.” The meeting was attended by 75 people, including MEPs, NGOs, the Directorate General for Environment and the Directorate General for Climate Action.

Pia Bucella, Director in DG Environment, European Commission urged the European Parliament as the political arm of the EU to raise the profile and encourage the integration of coastal Blue Carbon-based activities, such as the conservation and restoration of these systems.

"Preserving and restoring coastal and marine ecosystems should be fully integrated in all climate change mitigation strategies and biodiversity policies at International and European level”, argued Mr. Stevenson. He further declared the blue carbon symposium to be "ground-breaking in the European Parliament."

The discussion at Parliament today helped to create links between the growing suite of Blue Carbon activities with activities of the European Commission on climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development. It signifies the greater level of recognition and importance being given to Blue Carbon and heralds a strong start to 2012, which I tentatively am calling "the year of blue carbon."

The symposium followed a two day workshop of the International Blue Carbon Policy Working Group, hsoted by IUCN, Conservation International, and the Eurpoean Bureau for Conservation and Development. Restore America's Estuaries has been participating in the working group since its inception, bringing a national perspective and working to strengthen both the U.S. and global blue  carbon efforts. The policy group succeeded in refining its priorities and objectives over the past two days and has made substantial progress toward integrating blue carbon into existing international frameworks.

For more information, visit http://www.ebcd.org/en/EP_Intergroup_CCBSD/Blue_Carbon___managing_coastal_ecosystems_for_climate_change_mitigation_-_EP_Intergroup.html

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How cool is this? Thanks to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), you can now calculate your carbon footprint, then see how much mangroves, salt marsh, or sea grasses it would take to offset your emissions on your iPhone. UNEP launched the application at the Eye on Earth summit in Abu Dhabi on December 13. It includes information about Blue Carbon, REDD Carbon, and how consumers can reduce their impacts on important ecosystems. Here's a description of the app.

This will certainly raise the profile of Blue and REDD Carbon, and it makes me want to get an iPhone, too. Nice work UNEP!

The app is available at the Apple Store.

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I wanted to share two recent radio stories relating to coastal blue carbon and a web resource.

On December 6 and 7, NPR aired a two-part story about California's climate law and "carbon farming" in the Sacramento - San Joaquin River Delta. Click here for the story.

On November 29, the Diane Rehm interviewed Kennedy Warne, a New Zealand marine biologist, about the loss of mangroves to shrimp farming. Coastal blue carbon is being proposed as an option to protect remaining mangroves. Dr. Warne has a new book out, “Let Them Eat Shrimp: The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea.” Click here for the interview.

NOAA has launched a blue carbon web site describing NOAA's efforts - http://www.habitat.noaa.gov/noaabluecarbonefforts.html.

I hope you can make use of these new resources.

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The Verified Carbon Standard Association is now seeking peer reviewers for the draft Wetlands Requirements. RAE has been leading the VCS Wetlands Technical Working Group, which includes: Steve Crooks with ESAPWA, Igino Emmer of Silvestrum, Pat Megonigal at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Boone Kauffman with Oregon State University, Carolyn Ching with VCSA and myself.

Here's the full text of the announcement:

The VCS Association is seeking qualified individuals to participate in a peer review of draft requirements for crediting the greenhouse gas benefits of Wetlands Restoration and Conservation (WRC) activities.

The draft requirements have been developed by the VCS Wetlands Technical Working Group. The final requirements will be incorporated into existing VCS requirements for crediting the GHG benefits of activities in the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector.

The objective of the peer review is to solicit detailed technical input to ensure the draft requirements are conceptually rigorous, scientifically robust and workable in practice. The peer review will emphasize technical rigor; broader input will be sought later during a public consultation.

Peer reviewers should have significant expertise and experience with wetland restoration or conservation. Methodology developers, policy makers, market analysts and validation/verification bodies, among others, are invited to apply. Familiarity with VCS methodology development and assessment is useful but not essential.

• To be considered as a peer reviewer, please submit your resume or CV and a brief description of your experience to secretariat@v-c-s.org by 23 December.

• To recommend a peer reviewer, please submit their name and contact details by 16 December.

Peer reviewers will be asked to begin the review in early January 2012 and provide comments by early February. Peer reviewers should expect to commit 4-8 hours to the task. We regret that we are unable to offer compensation.

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The International Blue Carbon Policy Working Group released its Blue Carbon Policy Framework today, which details a coordinated program of policy objectives and activities needed for the integration of blue carbon into existing initiatives.

Here is a summary from the report of the blue carbon policy objectives:

1. Integrate Blue Carbon activities fully into the international policy and financing processes of the UNFCCC as part of mechanisms for climate change mitigation
   1. Build awareness in the climate change policy community of the strength of scientific evidence on the carbon stored in coastal ecosystems and the emissions resulting from the degradation and destruction of these systems.
   2. Access carbon finance through UNFCCC mechanisms and related funding streams
   3. Include Blue Carbon management activities as incentives for climate change mitigation by Annex-I countries
   4. Provide the scientific and technical basis (data, reporting and accounting guidelines, methodologies, etc) for financing of coastal carbon management activities.
2. Integrate Blue Carbon activities fully into other carbon finance mechanisms such as the voluntary carbon market as a mechanism for climate change mitigation
3. Develop a network of demonstration projects
   1. Strategic coordination and funding of demonstration projects
   2. Capacity building at local/national level
4. Integrate Blue Carbon activities into other international, regional and national frameworks and policies, including coastal and marine frameworks and policies
   1. Enhance implementation and inform financing processes of those relevant MEAs that provide policy frameworks relevant for ocean and coastal habitats management
   2. Use existing international frameworks to advance and disseminate technical knowledge on coastal ecosystems management for climate change mitigation
   3. Use international frameworks to raise awareness of role of conservation, restoration and sustainable use of coastal ecosystems for climate change mitigation
   4. Integrate coastal ecosystem conservation, restoration and sustainable use activities as means for climate change mitigation in national, sub-national and sectoral policy frameworks.
5. Facilitate the inclusion of the carbon value of coastal ecosystems in the accounting of ecosystem services

Restore America’s Estuaries is honored to participate in the working group, and is working to integrate blue carbon activities into voluntary and regulatory carbon markets.

The policy working group was convened in July by IUCN and Conservation International and consists of experts in coastal science, environmental policy and economics, and project implementation from within the climate change and marine communities. Representatives from the following organizations and institutions were present at the Washington, DC meeting: IUCN, CI, UNESCO-IOC, UNEP, World Bank, VCS, Climate Focus, Silvestrum, ESA-PWA, Restore America’s Estuaries, EDF, MARES/Forest Trend, Wetlands International, Nicholas Institute - Duke University, Oregon State University, Ramsar Secretariat, CBD Secretariat, Coalition of Rainforest Nations, NOAA, U.S. Department of State, Ministry of the Environment Ecuador, Agency for Marine and Fisheries Research and Development Indonesia. Funding for the workshop has been provided by the Linden Trust for Conservation. Additional workshops will be held during 2012.

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For those of you in Durban next week, I recommend a workshop being offered by IUCN and Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, "Managing Coastal Ecosystems for Climate Mitigation." The workshop is December 7th and is part of the Rio Conventions Pavillion.

From the flyer:

Coastal habitats worldwide are under increasing threat of destruction through human activities. This loss of habitat carries with it the loss of critical functions that coastal ecosystems provide, including carbon storage.

This session will discuss…scientific and economic dimensions and explore policy and financing options for conserving carbon in coastal habitats for climate mitigation. Managing coastal ecosystems for climate change mitigation can achieve multiple benefits towards the achievement of the objectives of the UNFCCC as well as CBD.

Presenters:
Dr Stephen Crooks, Climate Change Director, ESA PWA
Dr Brian C. Murray, Research Professor and Director for Economic Analysis, Nicholas Institute
Robert O'Sullivan, Executive Director North America, Climate Focus
Dr.-Ing. Widodo S. Pranowo, Head of R&D Programme, Center for Marine & Coastal Resources Research & Development, Ministry of Marine & Fisheries, The Republic of Indonesa.

For more information, contact Dorothee Herr at IUCN.

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A study released in November by PRBO Conservation Science concludes that in a worst-case scenario, 93% of San Franscisco Bay's tidal marsh will be inundated by sea level rise in 50-100 years, but that restoration can help mitigate these scenarios.

From a wetlands carbon perspective, this loss would be devastating - SF Bay's tidal marshes are excellent at sequestering carbon, and their soils contain hundreds of years of stored carbon, carbon that would be released if the wetlands are inundated.

Action now to protect and restore San Francisco's tidal marshes that allows them to migrate as sea levels rise is essential and will result in increased carbon sequestration and storage, helping mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The study assesses how sea-level rise, suspended sediment availability, salinity and other factors might impact San Francisco Bay’s tidal marshes.  "Evaluating Tidal Marsh Sustainability in the Face of Sea-Level Rise: A Hybrid Modeling Approach Applied to San Francisco Bay," was published this week in the journal PLoS ONE.  The study was authored by researchers from PRBO as well as ESA PWA, University of San Francisco, UC Berkeley, and San Francisco State University.

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Duke University's Nicholas Institute has released a new report, "Financing Options for Blue Carbon: Opportunities and Lessons from the REDD+ Experience."

From the executive summary:

"Human activities such as agriculture and aquaculture can degrade and destroy coastal habitats. When development pressures transform mangroves, seagrass, and coastal wetlands, carbon stored in their biomass and soil is released to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). One way to counter these pressures and thereby conserve the carbon stored in these habitats (referred to as blue carbon) is to provide payments for the environmental services provided by coastal habitats. Such payments require financing from a willing source.

This paper analyzes current and potential options for carbon mitigation payments as a source of blue carbon finance. With other work that has focused on the payments needed to secure blue carbon (see Murray et al. 2011), this paper can help stakeholders assess funding gaps and direct scarce resources to those activities that will provide the greatest blue carbon benefits.

Coastal habitats contain relatively high levels of soil carbon, and the drivers of their degradation are unique. Nevertheless, the possibilities for blue carbon financing mirror those that have emerged for forest-stored carbon in discussions of REDD+1 financing, if at a different scale. One objective of this paper is to determine the extent to which this financing can serve as a platform for blue carbon financing, which has not yet materialized."

I encourage you to review this excellent report, which should help guide our thinking as we bring carbon finance to bear on wetlands activities.

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A new research article in Global Change Biology, "Paleoreconstruction of estuarine sediments reveal human-induced weakening of coastal carbon sinks," reports that human impacts have reduced the carbon sink potential of coastal ecosystems.

"We have effectively gone back in time and monitored carbon capture and storage by coastal ecosystems, finding a 100-fold weakening in the ability of coastal ecosystems to sequester carbon since the time of European settlement. This severely hampered the ability of nature to reset the planet's thermostat." said Dr. Peter Macreadie, University of Technology, Sydney Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellow. The Scientists used core samples from Botany Bay in Sydney to reconstruct the sedimentation changes in the past 6000 years, highlighting the changes in the ecology. The plant samples in the sedimentation changed as rapid industrialisation occurred around Botany Bay during the 1950s. "Unfortunately, this outcome is common to urbanized estuaries throughout the world, therefore the study adds further support for the inclusion of Blue Carbon habitats (seagrasses, saltmarshes, and mangroves) in greenhouse gas abatement schemes," concluded Dr. Peter Macreadie. (source - http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/12/01/18701450.php).

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This post started off as a means to thank three organizations who have recently provided support to the Restore America’s Estuaries wetland carbon initiative: the State of Maryland Department of Natural Resources Power Plant Research Program, GenOn Energy, and America’s WETLAND Foundation. Thank you, and thanks to all of our partners who are helping advance coastal blue carbon.

It’s also a great opportunity to provide a snapshot of some of the wetlands carbon and blue carbon activities in the U.S. and the world. What’s striking to me is that 2-3 years ago, I could count wetlands carbon related activities on my fingers. Now it takes fingers, toes, and more.

Here’s a snapshot of what’s happening:

The State of Louisiana’s Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration is working to enhance coastal wetlands projects through carbon finance. They have created an advisory group and are now mapping out a path to a wetlands methodology focusing on Gulf Coast opportunities.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the University of Maryland, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center have been collaborating since 2007 to assess the feasibility and design methodologies for carbon crediting of marsh restoration projects in Maryland. Field work has been conducted at marshes restored using dredged material placement in the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge to better understand the spatial variability of carbon sequestration and the rates of methane emissions from brackish marshes. In 2011, they began a combined field and modeling study at three ditch-drained marsh restoration sites to assess their potential for carbon crediting.

Conservation International (CI) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have created international Blue Carbon Science and Policy Working Groups to advance the scientific, management and policy goals of the Blue Carbon Initiative, whose founding members include CI, IUCN, and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO. On December 6^th, they will release their Blue Carbon Policy Framework.

Duke University masters students are working on a project to demonstrate how the Duke Carbon Offsets Initiative can take advantage of coastal blue carbon opportunities and invest in carbon credits for the University.

The IPCC Task Force on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Organization is updating its guidelines on national greenhouse gas inventories for wetlands to include estimates of emissions and reductions with land use change on peatlands and potentially coastal and other wetlands. This activity would bring wetlands into national greenhouse gas accounting. “At its 33rd session, the IPCC has decided to produce additional guidance, the ‘2013 Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Wetlands’, to cover both inland wetlands such as peat lands and coastal wetlands such as mangroves. Preparation of inventory guidance on wetlands has been requested by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the IPCC hopes that the 2013 supplementary guidance will make an important contribution to future international action on wetlands.” For more information, visit http://www.ipcc-nggip.iges.or.jp/home/wetlands.html.

The National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis is coordinating a research project to evaluate and test the potential to develop empirically-based and process-based models of carbon dynamics that identify variations in sequestration and emissions across gradients of salinity, inundation, tidal range, and suspended sediment supply. The working group includes experts in a wide range of fields, including the development of carbon offset protocols, to ensure that the products of the working group will directly integrate with GHG emissions reduction programs.

This summer, four researchers at Texas A&M University at Galveston were awarded a three-year grant by NASA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to:

• • Quantify carbon sequestration in coastal wetlands with special emphasis on marsh and mangrove plant communities along the Texas coast.
  • Identify and measure the shifts in vegetation structure that have occurred in estuarine wetlands over the last decade.
  • Identify and measure the loss of naturally occurring estuarine wetlands over the last decade from development along the Gulf of Mexico coast.
  • Measure the amount of wetlands carbon sequestration capacity lost due to recent human-induced changes in the landscape.

There’s much more, but this should offer a representative sample of the growing momentum for wetlands carbon. And with that, I again want to thank all of the individuals and organizations who have committed time and resources to advancing blue carbon, including our most recent partners, the America’s WETLAND Foundation, GenOn Energy, and Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Thank you, and Happy Thanksgiving.

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