The conservation, restoration, and sustainable management of blue carbon ecosystems are critical to addressing the intertwined crises of climate change and biodiversity loss. Actionable blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) are considered mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and tidal salt marshes, all of which have exceptionally high carbon sequestration potential per unit area and offer a range of benefits for communities, biodiversity, and climate adaptation and resilience.
1. However, efforts to fully capture BCEs’ value and secure the ongoing delivery of their ecosystem services remain limited, due to a complex set of barriers. Among these is a real or perceived lack of financing options to bring BCE projects to life and sustain the benefits they bring in the long term. In fact, the suite of financing approaches available for BCE projects is broad and diverse. Carbon
market approaches are often the most recognized financing solution for BCEs yet are not applicable or optimal everywhere. Only 1% of carbon credit transactions on the voluntary market to date are from blue carbon.
2. Thus, it is opportune to consider locally relevant opportunities (and barriers) for other financing options, which is why other innovative financing approaches, referred to as noncarbon market approaches (NCMAs), are the focus of this report.
