BLUE CARBON COLLABORATIVE

Advancing blue carbon ecosystem conservation in California

The climate crisis is upon us. Coastal wetlands offer a natural solution to its impacts. California has a bold decarbonization goal – yet it also has the climate resiliency potential of maximizing the massive carbon-sinking ability of 840 miles of coastline. Newly emerging science points to tidal salt marshes and seagrass beds as carbon sequestration powerhouses, potentially storing up to 50 times the carbon of a rainforest.

WILDCOAST recently founded the Blue Carbon Collaborative: a network of organizations and individuals representing science, technology, and policy with a common goal to identify gaps and standardize practices surrounding blue carbon conservation, research, policy and resources.

Coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangrove forests, wetlands and seagrass areas have great potential for carbon sequestration. These blue carbon ecosystems are a natural solution to climate change. Stemming from their conservation work on mangroves in Mexico, WILDCOAST began examining wetlands in California as potential opportunities for natural solutions. Through the Collaborative, WILDCOAST has identified a need for collaboration around blue carbon research and policy in California.

Currently, thanks to a grant from the San Diego Foundation, WILDCOAST is working with Scripps Institution of Oceanography to measure blue carbon in the coastal wetlands of San Diego County. With funding from California’s Ocean Protection Council, WILDCOAST is also restoring 42 acres of coastal wetlands in the region. In Mexico, WILDCOAST has conserved 8,454 acres of carbon storing mangroves and has restored 250 acres of mangrove habitat.