Blue carbon ecosystems support livelihoods, stabilise and protect coasts, and can play an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, when degraded they can become significant sources of greenhouse gases and the benefits they offer diminish or disappear. Efforts to enhance blue carbon ecosystem protection and restoration help achieve multiple Sustainable Development Goals and underpin a resilient Blue Economy. However, the finance mechanisms and policy frameworks that are needed to facilitate investment into this protection and restoration remain poorly developed.

The Indian Ocean contains a disproportionate amount of the world’s blue carbon ecosystems, and IORA Member States are well-positioned to be global leaders. However, the pressures associated with developments that erode the natural capital that blue carbon ecosystems provide have degraded these ecosystems, and some of the highest rates of habitat loss or degradation occur in Indian Ocean Member States.

In February 2020 the IORA Indian Ocean Blue Carbon Hub hosted its inaugural ‘think tank’ meeting in Mauritius, focussed blue carbon finance. At the meeting, delegates acknowledged that an ability to access finance was a critical impediment to scaling up protection and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems. In response, they agreed that it would be useful to develop a whitepaper. The whitepaper was subsequently written by a global team of experts with deep domain knowledge, and submitted for consideration by Member States at the IORA Council of Senior Officers meeting in November 2021.

Event Timing:

12 May 2022

South Africa
Perth
Canberra

0700 UTC
0900 South Africa
1100 Mauritius
1500 Perth, Australia

Online Webinar (Zoom) -  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0lcOCurzwqGNP1rz9FpmRr4YCLMeVbRWQU 

For more info contact - m.wilson@csiro.au