A seagrass meadow near Atauro Island, Timor-Leste. Paul Hilton, Conservation International
Nicola Jones, YaleEnvironment360
Seagrasses, mangrove forests, and coastal wetlands store vast amounts of carbon, and their preservation and restoration hold great potential to bank CO2 and keep it out of the atmosphere. But can the blue carbon market avoid the pitfalls that have plagued land-based programs?
Off the shores of Virginia, vast meadows of seagrass sway in the shallow waters. Over the past two decades, conservation scientists have spread more than 70 million seeds in the bays there, restoring 9,000 acres (3,600 ha) of an ecosystem devastated by disease in the 1930s. The work has brought back eelgrass (Zostera marina) — a keystone species that supports crustaceans, fish, and scallops, and is now absorbing the equivalent of nearly half a metric ton of CO2 per hectare per year.
Now, the Virginia Nature Conservancy is aiming to turn those tons into carbon credits that it can sell for cash.