Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Restoration Ecology
Volume
31
Issue
7
Publisher
Wiley
School
School of Science
RAS ID
51788
Funders
This work was supported by the Clean Energy Regulator. This work was supportedby award FL200100133 from the Australian Research Council. M.F.A. is supported by an Advance Queensland Industry ResearchFellowship, Queensland Government. Open access publishing facilitatedby The University of Queensland, as part of the Wiley - The University of Queensland agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.
Grant Number
ARC Number : FL200100133
Abstract
Restoration of coastal wetlands has the potential to deliver both climate change mitigation, called blue carbon, and adaptation benefits to coastal communities, as well as supporting biodiversity and providing additional ecosystem services. Valuing carbon sequestration may incentivize restoration projects; however, it requires development of rigorous methods for quantifying blue carbon sequestered during coastal wetland restoration. We describe the development of a blue carbon accounting model (BlueCAM) used within the Tidal Restoration of Blue Carbon Ecosystems Methodology Determination 2022 of the Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF), which is Australia's voluntary carbon market scheme. The new BlueCAM uses Australian data to estimate abatement from carbon and greenhouse gas sources and sinks arising from coastal wetland restoration (via tidal restoration) and aligns with the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories. BlueCAM includes carbon sequestered in soils and biomass and avoided emissions from alternative land uses. A conservative modeled approach was used to provide estimates of abatement (as opposed to on-ground measurements); and in doing so, this will reduce the costs associated with monitoring and verification for ERF projects and may increase participation in blue carbon projects by Australian landholders. BlueCAM encompasses multiple climate regions and plant communities and therefore may be useful to others outside Australia seeking to value blue carbon benefits from coastal wetland restoration.
DOI
10.1111/rec.13739
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Comments
Lovelock, C. E., Adame, M. F., Bradley, J., Dittmann, S., Hagger, V., Hickey, S. M., ... & Sippo, J. Z. (2023). An Australian blue carbon method to estimate climate change mitigation benefits of coastal wetland restoration. Restoration Ecology, 31(7), e13739. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13739