Coastal wetlands—salt marshes, seagrass beds, and mangrove forests—host some of the richest biodiversity on the planet, acting as refuge for wildlife and nurseries for juvenile fish, including species important for local communities and livelihoods.
By stabilizing shorelines and serving as a buffer from storms, these habitats also help coastal communities adapt to a changing climate. Coastal wetlands, sometimes referred to as “blue carbon” ecosystems, also sequester and store large amounts of carbon in the soil, mitigating the effects of climate change. Yet coastal wetlands are among the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. Over the past 50 years, development, pollution, and other threats have destroyed half of the world’s mangroves, and an estimated 7% of seagrass meadows are lost globally every year.
The advancing coastal wetlands conservation project builds on The Pew Charitable Trusts’ previous work to accelerate conservation and management of these ecosystems through countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs)—their formal emission-reduction and climate-adaptation commitments to the United Nations’ 2015 Paris Agreement—with a focus on the Latin America and Caribbean and Western Indian Ocean regions.
In January 2019, Pew launched the project to support the inclusion of comprehensive and measurable coastal wetlands protections in countries’ updated NDCs. Over the ensuing three years, in partnership with local organizations, research institutions, and governments in Belize, Costa Rica, and Seychelles, Pew worked to strengthen country-specific research, policy, and finance capacity for mangrove and seagrass conservation. As a result of efforts by Pew and its partners, all three countries included ambitious coastal wetlands protections in their 2020-21 NDCs.
In addition to continuing support for those first three countries, Pew is now working with local and regional partners in Honduras, Panama, Jamaica, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique, providing technical assistance and strengthening local capacity in research, policy, and finance ahead of 2025 NDC updates. Pew is also expanding seagrass mapping throughout the Western Indian Ocean to develop the first field-verified national seagrass map for Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Madagascar.
Through these efforts, Pew seeks to support nations in developing and implementing robust NDC targets to protect or restore their coastal wetlands.
Coastal wetlands can help countries strengthen their economies, enhance the lives and livelihoods of their people, protect biodiversity, and help to achieve international climate commitments.
With climate change already causing devastating effects around the world, governments are under increasing pressure to take urgent action to stave off even more severe impacts, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). While greatly reducing greenhouse gas emissions offers the most direct and effective path to that goal, governments should also pursue nature-based solutions, such as the conservation and restoration of peatlands.
Coastal wetlands—namely mangroves, seagrasses, and saltmarshes—are powerful examples of the role that nature can play in limiting the impacts of climate change. For one, coastal wetlands boast an incredible capacity to store blue carbon, the carbon dioxide that these ecosystems absorb from the atmosphere. Studies show that coastal wetlands can store three to five times more carbon per acre than terrestrial forests.
A proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This is borne out in science, where a collective approach is often the best way to solve a difficult problem. Case in point: A new research collaborative, the Large-Scale Seagrass Mapping and Management Initiative (LaSMMI), is now working on mapping seagrass meadows along multiple African countries in the Western Indian Ocean.
Coastal wetlands such as salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrasses play a key role in climate regulation, harboring significant carbon stocks in their soils, as well as sequestering more carbon out of the atmosphere than the same area of terrestrial forest would.
