Value of Blue Carbon Ecosystem Restoration with Co-Benefits: Opportunities and Challenges

Shrutika Parihar, a Doctoral Candidate at the Global Centre for Environment and Energy, received the best oral presentation award at the G20 India 2023 National Conference on “Water and Environment: Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Development” (NCWE’2023) organised by Gujarat Institute of Desert Ecology, Bhuj, Kachchh, Gujarat, India under theme on Wetland Conservation and Management. She presented her work in a Technical session on Water governance, policy and planning. While India’s climate change mitigation and adaptation policies emphasise enhancing coastal resource efficiency and resilience, these ignore the estimation of the sequestration of carbon stock. Thus, the actual potential of blue carbon remains untapped. Shrutika’s presentation highlighted the estimated carbon sequestration potential of blue carbon and efforts towards the restoration of mangroves in Kutch. The conservation and restoration of blue carbon have high significance as they could also potentially deliver benefits for a range of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Her talks highlighted the main concerns relating to SDGs 11, 12 and 13.

India’s SDG index shows the country is lagging behind in protecting and restoring water-related ecosystems such as mangroves. Sustainability World Report 2021 shows that India is on track with SDG achievements in reducing fossil fuel-based emissions, but there is no mention of the implementation of national climate adaptation plans for terrestrial, wetland and freshwater ecosystems. Moreover, the sustainability of oceans is under severe threat due to marine plastic and marine pollution. The dead zones are rising at an alarming rate, from 400 (2008) to 700 (2019). “Dead zones” are areas of water that lack sufficient oxygen to support marine life. Lastly, India has lost 40% of its mangrove area in the last century due to agriculture, aquaculture, tourism, urban development and overexploitation, all of which impact threatened species.

Shrutika’s presentation shows mainstreaming of blue carbon sequestration is a key element of India’s mitigation strategy but, more importantly, also to reduce marine pollution, increase biodiversity and enhance the sink area by preserving pristine (old) mangroves with high carbon storage, which are nesting ground of turtles (184.87 sq. km), Horseshoe crab (72.35 sq. km) and birds (786.36 sq. km).