Blue Carbon: The Opportunity of Coastal Sinks for Africa

The policy brief highlights the significant potential of Africa's coastal ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrasses, and tidal marshes, to act as carbon sinks. It argues that these 'Blue Carbon' sources are currently undervalued and under-accounted for in international frameworks like the UNFCCC. The author recommends that African nations advocate for the expansion of IPCC guidelines and the integration of coastal sinks into REDD+ and NAMA frameworks to attract conservation financing and meet national emission targets.

• Africa possesses substantial coastal carbon resources, hosting approximately 3.5 million hectares of mangroves, which represents 20% of the global total. Nigeria and Mozambique are identified as having the largest mangrove forests on the continent.
• Coastal ecosystems are being degraded rapidly due to urban development, agriculture, aquaculture, pollution, and extraction of salt and sand. This degradation compromises their ability to sequester carbon and negatively impacts food security, as 75% of commercial fish species rely on mangrove forests for part of their life cycle.
• Current international climate frameworks and National GHG Inventory Submissions do not account for emissions resulting from the destruction of marine habitats or poor management of coastal ecosystems. Consequently, countries are underestimating their anthropogenic emissions and missing opportunities to count restoration savings toward climate targets.
• While some countries like Tanzania, Costa Rica, Indonesia, and Ecuador mention mangroves in REDD+ submissions, the scope of REDD+ remains limited to forest-related activities and excludes non-forest land uses such as seagrasses and salt marshes.
• Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs) provide a flexible opportunity for African states, including small-island nations, to access mitigation finance for coastal management. Ghana, Eritrea, and Sierra Leone have already submitted coastal wetland-related NAMAs.
• The primary barriers to accessing Blue Carbon finance and carbon markets are a lack of an international regulatory framework, insufficient communication of benefits to the policy community, and a lack of confidence in the quantification of carbon captured by these sinks.

APA

Chevallier, R. (2012). Blue Carbon: The Opportunity of Coastal Sinks for Africa. South African Institute of International Affairs. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Policy-Briefing-59.pdf

Chicago

Chevallier, Romy. Blue Carbon: The Opportunity of Coastal Sinks for Africa. South African Institute of International Affairs, 2012. https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Policy-Briefing-59.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Chevallier |first1=Romy |title=Blue Carbon: The Opportunity of Coastal Sinks for Africa |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |date=November 2012 |url=https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Policy-Briefing-59.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{chevallier2012blue, author = {Chevallier, Romy}, title = {{Blue Carbon: The Opportunity of Coastal Sinks for Africa}}, institution = {South African Institute of International Affairs}, year = {2012}, month = nov, url = {https://saiia.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Policy-Briefing-59.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }