Seychelles Blue Carbon Opportunities
Introducing Seychellois to Blue Carbon ecosystems
Blue carbon ecosystems are one of the world’s most effective carbon sinks, helping offset carbon emissions and mitigate climate change.
What is blue carbon?
The carbon captured and stored by terrestrial forests is usually known as green carbon given than forests tend to have green colours most of the time.
Blue carbon refers to the carbon that is captured and stored by marine and coastal ecosystems, which are usually associated with blue tones.
What are blue carbon ecosystems?
Coastal wetlands such as mangrove forests, seagrass meadows and saltmarshes are often called blue carbon ecosystems.
They are among the world’s most efficient natural carbon sinks, capturing carbon up to 40-times faster than tropical rainforests and locking away carbon in the soil for millennial time scales. Coastal blue carbon ecosystems are increasingly recognised as a natural- based solution to reduce atmospheric carbon and mitigate climate change.
Seychelles' blue carbon ecosystems include tropical seagrass meadows and mangrove forests.
Why is blue carbon important?
Protection and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems will enhance carbon sequestration, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and improve Seychelles' resilience to climate change.
Blue carbon ecosystems provide a wide range of economic, environmental, and livelihood benefits, including carbon drawdown.
They can capture carbon up to four times faster than terrestrial forests and store it in the underlying soils over millennial timescales. The high productivity and structural complexity of these vegetated ecosystems allow for large carbon stocks to be quickly accumulated in the plant biomass and sediments, where they are stored for extended periods due to the waterlogged, anaerobic nature of the system.
A single hectare of mangrove forest and seagrass bed stores on average 386 and 108 tonnes of carbon and captures approximately 31 and 48 Million tonnes of carbon each year, respectively.
When these systems degrade, they can become sources of greenhouse gasses releasing all the carbon stored back into the environment. Globally, up to one billion tonnes of carbon dioxide are being released annually from degraded blue carbon ecosystems.
Blue carbon ecosystems cover less than 0.5% of the ocean floor, but hold over half of the world's blue carbon.
What other services blue carbon ecosystems provide?
Beyond the benefits of carbon storage, blue carbon ecosystems offers a wide range of services and benefits to people and nature (co-benefits).
Biodiversity enhancement: Enhance wildlife biodiversity (including threatened and endangered species) from habitat and food provisioning.
Coastal protection: Increase coastal resilience to storm surges and sea-level rise by stabilising shoreline soils and serving as green walls.
Water quality protection: Improve water quality by removing and retaining excess nutrients, sediments, and pollutants.
Livelihoods and revenue: Support local economies and coastal livelihoods from fisheries and eco-tourism activities.
Recreational space: Provide for coastal recreation and enable communities to connect with nature.
SEYCHELLES' BLUE CARBON POTENTIAL
Seychelles’ mangrove forests and seagrass meadows provide important opportunities for carbon sequestration and climate change mitigation.
Every year, Seychelles' blue carbon ecosystems draw down more 200,000 tonnes of organic carbon equivalent to over 60% of Seychelles' annual CO₂ emissions.
However, if Seychelles’ blue carbon ecosystems were lost, the carbon released into the atmosphere would be equivalent to over 50 years of emissions from the entire Seychellois population.
Projects aiming to protect and enhance mangroves and seagrass habitats are essential to avoid carbon emissions, guarantee a continued carbon drawdown, and maintain additional ecosystem services critical to Seychellois (e.g., coastal protection and fisheries enhancement).
SEYCHELLES' BLUE CARBON CONTEXT
Over 100 Seychellois' took part in a national survey to explore the current social, political, ecological and scientific context of blue carbon ecosystems in Seychelles.
Most of the respondents worked in close connection to Seychelles' coastal wetlands across organisations spanning government, NGOs, academia, and the tourism industry. Analysis of the results identified key points about the local attitudes, knowledge, and frameworks around Seychelles’ coastal ecosystems.
Poor coastal education. The public has indifferent attitudes towards coastal wetlands due to a lack of education and understanding on their importance.
High coastal vulnerability. Seychellois are highly conscious of their vulnerability to ocean threats (eg. extreme weather events, sea-level rise).
Limited blue carbon research. Research is scarce and mainly directed towards mangroves. Almost 90% of the respondents considered the main challenge to advance research is the lack of funding, facilities, and equipment.
Great potential for blue carbon projects: There is great scope for coastal wetland protection and restoration, with less than 45% of the coastal wetlands protected, and already 50-60% of them being degraded. Further, most of the respondents indicated their organisations could support in-kind research or education on blue carbon ecosystems. 64% would support conservation and rehabilitation projects mainly motivated by increasing biodiversity and offsetting carbon emissions.
Unknown coastal revenues: Revenues from coastal wetlands are unknown, with most value potentially coming from fisheries enhancement.
SEYCHELLES' BLUE CARBON STORIES
Seychelles’ coastal wetlands are one of the most efficient natural mechanisms to fight climate change and their protection is one of the most effective ‘Climate-Ready actions’ local communities can take.
Seychelles has begun taking key steps to capitalise on its blue carbon opportunities. For example, Seychelles is currently expanding its research portfolio around seagrass meadows and mangrove forests aiming to collect on-ground measures of carbon stocks and high-resolution maps of these ecosystems. This will help Seychelles quantify and monitor its blue carbon stocks through time.
Further, children and local communities are increasingly involved in educational and on-ground restoration programs as a strategy to raise awareness and connect them with coastal wetlands. Strengthening Seychellois’ understanding of seagrasses and mangroves can increase mindfulness towards actions and decisions that affect them.
These, and many more, local actions (see below) will help position Seychelles at the forefront of international efforts to incorporate coastal carbon within climate change mitigation strategies, while also improving coastal resilience, local livelihoods, and community wellbeing.
National seagrass sampling campaign
National mangrove sampling campaign
Mangrove and seagrass distribution maps
The voice of seagrass meadows
High-resolution mangrove mapping at Port Launay
Aldabra's lush and expanding mangroves
Seychelles' first locally-managed reserve
Zerb lanmer: seagrass (creole)
Valuing ecosystem services from mangroves and seagrasses
Using mangrove soils to read the past
Caiman mangroves hit the big screen
Children-led mangrove restoration
Seychelles Wetlands Policy and Action Plan
Blue carbon activities for children
SEYCHELLES' BLUE CARBON ROADMAP
Seychelles’ Blue Carbon Roadmap sets a long-term path to establish a nationwide, evidence-based program geared towards the protection and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
Seychelles is increasingly committed to using blue carbon ecosystems as a natural climate solution. Within its updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) , Seychelles pledged to protect at least 50% of its seagrasses and mangroves by 2025 as an effective nature-based solution to reduce 26.4% of the national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 and reach net zero emissions by 2050. Seychelles also highlighted the importance of ocean climate actions by committing to the long-term monitoring of blue carbon ecosystems and the accounting of carbon removals (and/or emissions) within its National GHG Inventory.
To achieve these ambitious targets and effectively capitalise on all its blue carbon potential, Seychelles must strategically advance its research, engage its community, and permeate its legal frameworks with blue carbon. Additionally, financial incentives for blue carbon conservation and restoration should be established through international voluntary carbon markets and other environmental financing mechanisms.
Seychelles can realise its blue carbon opportunities by advancing its research agenda, empowering local communities, and permeating governance and financial frameworks with blue carbon.
Explore the Roadmap below or download the full report.
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BLUE CARBON RESOURCES
Key Blue Carbon papers
- Mcleod et al. 2011. A blueprint for blue carbon: toward an improved understanding of the role of vegetated coastal habitats in sequestering CO2
- Fourqurean et al. 2012. Seagrass ecosystems as a globally significant carbon stock
- Pendleton et al. 2012. Estimating Global ‘‘Blue Carbon’’ Emissions from Conversion and Degradation of Vegetated Coastal Ecosystems
- Macreadie et al. 2022. Blue carbon as a natural climate solution
- UNESCO Marine World Heritage: Custodians of the globe’s blue carbon assets .
Blue Carbon methodologies
Blue Carbon restoration
- UNEP's Guidelines on mangrove ecosystem restoration for the Western Indian Ocean Region
- UNEP's Guidelines on seagrass ecosystem restoration for the Western Indian Ocean Region.
- International principles and standards for the practice of ecological restoration
- A guide to the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM) .
- Coastal Blue Carbon in Practice: A Manual for Using the VCS Methodology for Tidal Wetland and Seagrass Restoration
Blue Carbon legislation, policy, and finance
Seychelles' resources
- Seychelles Marine Spatial Plan (SMP) Atlas (seagrass and mangrove maps)
- Seychelles’ updated Nationally Determined Contribution
- Alcindor. 2015. Mapping the distribution and composition of mangrove species: A case study in the Seychelles. Kingston University. London
- Constance et al. 2021. Extent change of protected mangrove forest and its relation to wave power exposure on Aldabra Atoll .
- Constance. 2022. The Ecology of Mangrove and Coastal Ecosystems for Conservation. University of Zurich. Switzerland
- Albert et al. 2021. Evaluation of ecosystem goods and services for Seychelles’ existing and proposed protected area system
- SeyCCAT's website: Coastal Wetlands and climate change
- Rowlands et al. (in prep) The Seychelles Seagrass Mapping and Carbon Assessment. A report to be submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture, Climate Change and Environment (MACCE).
- Wartman et al. (in prep) Blue carbon assessment for mangrove systems in Seychelles. A report to be submitted to the Seychelles’ Department of Blue Economy. Deakin University, Australia.
Free resources for children
- Wetlands +, An education guide to wetlands and coastal activities in the Seychelles Islands
- Wonders of Gomon Lanmer ( primary students ) | ( secondary students )
