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<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Coastal
wetlands can have a crucial role in the fight against climate change.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#222222;letter-spacing:-.4pt'>Blue future<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>19
January 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a
href="http://www.nature.com/news/blue-future-1.19191?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20160121&spMailingID=50507456&spUserID=MjA1NTE2ODQxMAS2&spJobID=842660933&spReportId=ODQyNjYwOTMzS0">http://www.nature.com/news/blue-future-1.19191?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20160121&spMailingID=50507456&spUserID=MjA1NTE2ODQxMAS2&spJobID=842660933&spReportId=ODQyNjYwOTMzS0</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Over the past
decade, scientists and policymakers have joined efforts to create a
science-based framework under the auspices of the United Nations to protect our
remaining tropical forests. These carbon-rich ecosystems help to moderate the
climate and serve as a treasure trove of biodiversity and a resource for local
and indigenous peoples. Governments across the tropics have begun to
incorporate forest conservation into their climate and development plans. Now
it is time to do the same with coastal wetlands.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Roughly half of
the world’s carbon emissions are absorbed by the oceans, and the UN
estimates that at least half of that carbon sequestration takes place in
‘blue-carbon’ wetlands. Often occupied by seagrass and mangroves,
these saltwater ecosystems promote healthy fisheries and sequester carbon in
their soils. Mangroves also stave off erosion and serve as the first line of
defence against powerful storms as well as saltwater intrusion into local
groundwater resources. The world has lost more than one-third of its mangroves
over the past several decades, and more succumb each year to shrimp farms, rice
paddies and palm plantations, as well as to tourism and real-estate
development. There’s money to be made, but it’s the environment
that pays.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Nascent efforts
are under way to halt this degradation, and a few pioneering projects have<span
class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110518/full/473255a.html"><span
style='color:#5C7996'>already shown success</span></a>. Senegal is home to the
world’s largest mangrove restoration project, which began in 2008.
Villagers have planted around 79 million mangrove trees across more than 7,900
hectares. The project has been registered and certified under the Kyoto
Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and is benefiting from the
sale of carbon credits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In 2010, the
United Nations Environment Programme launched the Blue Carbon Initiative, which
seeks to reverse current trends and increase the area of coastal wetlands under
effective management by 2025. The<span class=apple-converted-space> </span><a
href="http://www.nature.com/news/parisclimate-1.17532"><span style='color:#5C7996'>global
climate agreement</span></a><span class=apple-converted-space> </span>signed
in Paris last December opens the door to advance such efforts, for example by
enabling carbon trading and a programme similar to the CDM that allows
countries and companies to pay to reduce emissions or build carbon stocks in
projects such as the one in Senegal. It will be up to governments to
incorporate coastal management into their climate plans, and to begin creating
what some have called the ‘blue-green economy’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>The available
evidence justifies the pursuit of these efforts. Mangrove ecosystems alone
could store as much as 20 billion tonnes of carbon —
equivalent to more than 2 years of global carbon emissions — in
their soils, much of which would be released into the atmosphere if the trees
were destroyed. A 2012 study suggested that mangrove conservation could be
effective at a cost of just US$4–10 per tonne of carbon dioxide, which is
within the current range of prices on the European carbon trading system (<a
href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1200519109"><span style='color:#5C7996'>J.
Siikamäki</span><span class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#5C7996;
text-decoration:none'> </span></span><i><span style='color:#5C7996'>et al.</span></i><span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'> </span></span><i><span
style='color:#5C7996'>Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA</span></i><span
class=apple-converted-space><span style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'> </span></span><b><span
style='color:#5C7996'>109,</span></b><span class=apple-converted-space><span
style='color:#5C7996;text-decoration:none'> </span></span><span
style='color:#5C7996'>14369–14374; 2012</span></a>).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In some cases,
mangrove protection and restoration could even benefit from the existing
forest-carbon-trading framework, which enables developed countries to invest in
efforts to reduce deforestation in the developing world. But more science is
needed, both to document the extent and causes of the problem and to provide
the data that will be needed if countries are to incorporate coastal wetlands
into their carbon inventories and climate planning. We know too little about
what happens to the carbon locked up in plants and soils when they are
converted for other uses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Just as
occurred with remedying tropical deforestation, science and policy can move
forward in parallel. As countries establish coastal management policies, they
will help to drive the development of both science and policies. One
opportunity is in the Dominican Republic, which has devised a comprehensive
plan to reduce emissions by conserving and restoring mangrove forests. That
project is registered with the UN, and it incorporates scientific objectives,
including quantification of the carbon sequestration and storage capacity of
these ecosystems. This will inform the policy framework and provide the
scientific basis for any economic returns that the initiative may reap years
and decades into the future.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style='mso-margin-top-alt:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:19.8pt;
margin-left:0in'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Meeting the
objectives of the Paris agreement — to contain global warming over the
course of the twenty-first century — will require urgent action on all
fronts. Countries must work to reduce industrial carbon emissions, but ensuring
that natural ecosystems continue to function is equally vital — and
relatively simple. The planet that humanity calls home already knows how to
sequester carbon. Let’s make our forests and coastal wetlands work for
us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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