SALEEM SHAIKH Reuters 11 Dec 14;
LIMA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Better protecting the world's fast-disappearing mangroves could have big economic, social and environmental benefits, experts said at the U.N. climate talks in Lima this week.
Besides protecting shorelines from extreme weather and providing fish a safe place to breed, mangroves could play a big role in trapping climate-changing carbon emissions, something that has so far been largely overlooked, they said.
The world needs to ensure that, at both national and international levels, "mangroves have a place in REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) strategies and other low carbon development strategies such as National Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs),” said Achim Steiner, the U.N. Environment Program's executive director.
Right now, an absence of a carbon finance mechanisms for mangroves, and a lack of policy to support mangrove ecosystems - as well as widespread losses of mangroves themselves - mean hundredsof billions of dollars worth of potential benefits are being lost, the experts said.
As mangroves are cleared at a rate three to five times faster than other forests, according to UNEP estimates, those losses are particularly felt in developing countries where most mangroves are located, including Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Senegal, West Bengal, Vietnam and Sumatra.
A joint report by UNEP and the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), launched in Lima, estimates the economic cost of the destruction of carbon-rich mangroves worldwide at $42 billion annually.
Tim Christophersen, a forest and climate change expert with UNEP, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that protecting and conserving mangroves is crucial for the climate resilience of the world’s coastlines as they face threats such as rising sea level, increasingly frequent and powerful storms and saltwater intrusion into drinking water.
The UNEP report argues that while policymakers and financial markets are beginning to take action, more needs to be done to hammer out methodologies for carbon accounting for mangroves and other coastal wetland ecosystems.
That would help conserve mangroves and increase their profile in the U.N.-led REDD+ program and within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the report said.
“The management of coastal wetlands is replete with numerous benefits including fisheries production and shoreline protection which promote adaptation in coastal communities,” said Stephen Crook, climate change director at the California-based environmental science and planning firm ESA, and a lead author of the IPCC’s 2013 wetlands supplement.
KENYA’S MANGROVES
UNEP’s Christophersen shared success stories of coastal wetlands carbon projects launched in India’s West Bengal state, as well as in Kenya, Senegal and Indonesia’s Sumatra island.
For instance, a Gazi Bay community-led carbon finance project in Kenya, which has helped conserve manage and restore 117 hectares of mangroves by late 2014, has been able to certify it is sequestering 3,000 tonnes of carbon and sold carbon credits based on that.
The funds have then been allocated to community protects and additional mangrove activities overseen by the village leaders themselves, Christophersen said.
"One of the many successes of the project is a significant cut in illegal harvesting of mangroves,” he said. The project also has included planting of fast-growing forest species on nearby land to serve as alternate wood sources, and has ensured that communities have ownership of the mangroves, he said.
Crook said that such community-based mangroves protection initiatives could be replicated in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka, and scaled up to help reduce the impacts of tropical cyclones, typhoons and sea level rise.
(Reporting by Saleem Shaikh; editing by Laurie Goering)
To restore mangrove forests, it’s all in the planning
BARBARA FRASER CIFOR 11 Dec 14;
LIMA, Peru—Conservation and restoration of the world’s coastal wetlands and mangroves—threatened by excavation and drainage for shrimp farms and development—can buffer the effects of climate change, protect livelihoods and avoid the emission of thousands of tons of greenhouse gases every year.
But those benefits will wash away with the next storm unless the project is planned well and implemented effectively, experts say.
Drawing on examples from around the world, a new publication from the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) provides guidance for successful wetland or “coastal blue carbon” projects.
“Guiding principles for delivering coastal wetland carbon projects” offers information ranging from an overview of the carbon stored in coastal ecosystems to possibilities for carbon financing.
The publication was launched Dec. 9 at an event hosted by the Indonesian government on the sidelines of the UN climate summit in Lima, Peru.
“This publication is very timely,” Heru Prasetyo, the head of Indonesia’s National REDD+ Agency, said at the book launch. “In the discussion of climate change, the issue of blue carbon, or ecosystems going beyond landscapes and merging into seascapes, is very important.”
'NO SINGLE SIZE FITS ALL’
Coastal wetlands deliver among highest ecosystem service values of all natural systems, said Tim Christopherson, UNEP senior program officer for forests and climate change.
Because they store large amounts of carbon while providing other services—including protection against storm surges, ecotourism opportunities and spawning habitat for fish—mangroves and wetlands both mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and help people living along the coast adapt to a changing climate, said Daniel Murdiyarso, principal scientist at CIFOR and one of the publication’s co-authors.
“The question is how to find synergies between mitigation and adaptation strategies,” he said. “Coastal wetlands vary from place to place, and no single size fits all. There must be options.”
Although inclusion of coastal ecosystems in carbon finance markets is new, lessons can be drawn from around the world, said co-author Stephen Crooks, climate change program manager at Environmental Science Associates (ESA).
The cases examined by the authors included wetlands in Abu Dhabi, China, Guyana, Kenya, the United States and West Papua.
“The fundamental message is to conserve first,” said Crooks, who works with a group that has restored 1,500 wetlands in the past four decades.
Degraded wetlands can be restored, as long as planners remember that mangroves must be planted above the mean tide level and consider factors such as sea level rise and allowing room for wetlands to migrate as conditions change, Crooks said.
That means thinking on a landscape scale and planning for the future, as well as practical considerations, such as dealing with unclear land tenure and restoring natural ecosystem processes instead of resorting to levees and culverts.
“Poor project planning is one of the most important factors in project failure,” Crooks said.
NOT JUST CARBON
The publication offers guidelines for planning a blue carbon project, such as choosing a carbon standard and a greenhouse gas accounting method and evaluating the risk of leakage—the possibility that conservation or restoration of a wetland in one place could lead to more clearing for shrimp farms somewhere else.
The authors also highlight the need to gain support from local residents by stressing the many services mangroves and other coastal wetlands provide.
“These ecosystems aren’t just important for carbon,” Crooks said. They are also important for biological diversity, flood and storm protection, forest products, ecotourism possibilities, and cultural and spiritual values, he said. “And they provide a lot of fish.”
For more information about CIFOR’s research on mangrove forests, please contact Daniel Murdiyarso at d.murdiyarso@cgiar.org.
CIFOR’s research on mangroves forms part of the CGIAR Research Program on Forests, Trees and Agroforestry.
