Mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, saltwater marshes – these and other ‘blue forests’ are vital to coastal and island communities around the world
Blue Forests Project Partners
The Blue Forests Project is a global partnership that improves the management of coastal carbon and ecosystem services to build climate resilient and sustainable communities. Since the unique value of blue forests is not widely known, the project aims to improve the knowledge and capacity of carbon sequestration in blue forest ecosystems through on-the-ground demonstrations, identifying scientific knowledge gaps and providing best practices and tools for global application. This project is an initiative of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and co-financed by project partners, and managed by GRID-Arendal.
Explore our locations across three continents and seven countries:
Check out our case studies for each project below
The Blue Forests Project includes two project sites in Kenya, the first is Mikoko Pamoja located in Gazi Bay and the second is Vanga Blue Forest, located in nearby Vanga Bay on the border with Tanzania. Both are community-based mangrove carbon finance projects certified through the Plan Vivo standard, and Mikoko Pamoja is the world’s first successful coastal 'blue carbon’ project, selling carbon credits with payments supporting mangrove conservation and restoration activities.
Conservation International in Ecuador (CI Ecuador) focused on mainstreaming information about mangrove ecosystem services into national policy frameworks and developing useful concepts, language and tools for policymakers to take actions on sustainable mangrove conservation and restoration.
The Blue Ventures project aims to establish a sustainable, long-term mangrove payment for ecosystem services (PES) scheme to reduce deforestation and degradation and restore mangroves in two locations through the sale of Plan Vivo certificates and Verra carbon credits. Carbon credits generated by conserving and restoring mangrove ecosystems make an important contribution to poverty alleviation and biodiversity conservation in the area.
The Abu Dhabi Global Data Initiative (AGEDI) undertook a feasibility study to understand the full suite of policy, financial impacts, carbon sequestration, and ecosystem service data about mangroves in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi in order to understand how mangroves will be impacted by climate change and future conditions.
World Wildlife Fund in Mozambique (WWF Mozambique) worked on developing the first national strategy and action plan for mangroves. This plan focused on establishing baseline research and setting targets for climate science, conservation and restoration of mangroves.
Counterpart International in the Dominican Republic has been quantifying carbon stocks to establish a baseline of carbon inventory for mangroves. The goal of this project is to set an example in establishing carbon stock inventory for neighboring island nations.
Counterpart International has worked on creating a NAMA in Montecristi National Park. Mangroves occupy about 21,215 ha of the Dominican Republic, with large contiguous areas in the Montecristi Province in the northwestern part of the country. The area studied was located within and surrounding the Montecristi National Park in Montecristi Province.
Indonesia
The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) in Indonesia has focused on getting blue carbon into the national agenda and incorporating the coastal and marine sector into the national action plan for greenhouse gas reductions. They work on both seagrass and mangrove carbon, but the policy is focused on mangroves under REDD+.