Edinburgh Napier University

  Mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes are referred to as Blue Carbon habitats. They are championed within climate change policy and international initiatives because of their exceptional power as natural carbon sinks. In addition, millions of people rely directly on them for services such as fishing.

The project team includes the leaders of the world’s first community-based mangrove conservation project to be funded through the sale of carbon credits. Hence we have demonstrated the applicability of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) at a local scale to Blue Carbon. The development of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) towards achieving the Paris Agreement represents an enormous opportunity for Blue Carbon conservation and management. However it also raises the risks of the marginalisation of local knowledge and control, the imposition of inappropriate targets and the co-option of successful small scale projects by the state.

Working at local, national and international levels, this project will use the opportunity of the launch of a new local mangrove PES project in southern Kenya to research, document and disseminate best practice for community-based Blue Carbon habitats incorporating PES. It will ensure that Kenyan NDCs incorporate Blue Carbon in ways that are sensitive to local needs and use this as a case study for other nations. It will work with international campaigns on Blue Carbon conservation to influence the NDC process in other countries and will conduct new research on the scope for ethical expansion of the voluntary market in carbon credits beyond the Kyoto protocol.