Protecting Seagrass Through Payments for Ecosystem Services: A Community Guide

Shilland, R., Wanjiru, A., Mohamed, A., Grimsditch, G., & Huxham, M. (2020). Protecting Seagrass Through Payments for Ecosystem Services: A Community Guide. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environnment Program

Opportunities and Challenges for Community-Based Seagrass Conservation

Seagrass meadows are important marine ecosystems, providing a range of services including carbon sequestration, nursery habitats for fish and coastal protection. They are suffering rapid global decline in the face of eutrophication and other pollution, damage caused by fishing activities, tourism and coastal development. Degradation and loss of seagrass meadows negatively impacts their ability to provide ecosystem services, which are often of vital importance to resource-poor communities such as local fishers who depend on seagrass ecosystems for sustenance and income. Community-based management (CBM) presents an opportunity for effective, efficient and socially just conservation of seagrass. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) has been used in other ecosystems as a model to support community-based conservation but its application to seagrass meadows is in a very early stage.Community-based PES involving seagrass meadows would involve parties (buyers) making payments to communities or their representatives in exchange for management measures (implementation, restriction or adaptation of certain activities) that can be shown to enhance or ensure the delivery of seagrass ecosystem services. Here, the opportunities and challenges associated with community-based seagrass conservation, particularly PES-based, are discussed; we draw on experience in community-based PES projects in similar settings, but with different ecosystems, such as mangroves, and use carbon as the exemplar service (since a global market exists for carbon trading). Recommendations are made on how community-based seagrass conservation is best facilitated through policy mechanisms and tools

Opportunities and Challenges for Community-Based Seagrass Conservation

Seagrass meadows are important marine ecosystems, providing a range of services including carbon sequestration, nursery habitats for fish and coastal protection. They are suffering rapid global decline in the face of eutrophication and other pollution, damage caused by fishing activities, tourism and coastal development. Degradation and loss of seagrass meadows negatively impacts their ability to provide ecosystem services, which are often of vital importance to resource-poor communities such as local fishers who depend on seagrass ecosystems for sustenance and income. Community-based management (CBM) presents an opportunity for effective, efficient and socially just conservation of seagrass. Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) has been used in other ecosystems as a model to support community-based conservation but its application to seagrass meadows is in a very early stage.Community-based PES involving seagrass meadows would involve parties (buyers) making payments to communities or their representatives in exchange for management measures (implementation, restriction or adaptation of certain activities) that can be shown to enhance or ensure the delivery of seagrass ecosystem services. Here, the opportunities and challenges associated with community-based seagrass conservation, particularly PES-based, are discussed; we draw on experience in community-based PES projects in similar settings, but with different ecosystems, such as mangroves, and use carbon as the exemplar service (since a global market exists for carbon trading). Recommendations are made on how community-based seagrass conservation is best facilitated through policy mechanisms and tools

A question of standards: adapting carbon and other PES markets to work for community seagrass conservation

Seagrass meadows deliver multiple ecosystem services that are of particular importance to resource-poor coastal communities, yet they are rapidly declining globally. The Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) approach has been used to fund the protection of other ‘Blue Carbon’ Ecosystems (BCE), yet seagrass has been incorporated in just one PES project worldwide. Some of the ecosystem services delivered by seagrass have the potential for inclusion under a PES framework but multiple challenges currently make this difficult, particularly under community-based management. PES programmes typically focus on carbon as the tradable service, but scientific uncertainties regarding seagrass carbon are likely to remain significant barriers to using carbon as the sole commodity under current carbon trading standards and market conditions. It is recommended here that project developers demonstrate the multiple ecosystem services delivered by seagrass meadows, along with their importance to coastal communities, in the planning and marketing of seagrass PES projects. Moreover, they should consider approaches that incorporate seagrass meadows into other blue carbon certified projects. The capacities of the communities that rely most heavily on seagrass are generally very limited. Consequently, demanding high levels of scientific certainty over carbon stocks and flows will exclude most of these communities. Standards, buyers and policy makers should consider building community capacity in the technical and marketing requirements of voluntary carbon standards. The voluntary carbon market has the flexibility to pioneer certified seagrass carbon, potentially leading to the inclusion of seagrass carbon in formal policy instruments, such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)

Planning and licensing for marine aquaculture

Marine aquaculture has the potential to increase its contribution to the global food system and provide valuable ecosystem services, but appropriate planning, licensing and regulation systems must be in place to enable sustainable development. At present, approaches vary considerably throughout the world, and several national and regional investigations have highlighted the need for reforms if marine aquaculture is to fulfil its potential. This article aims to map and evaluate the challenges of planning and licensing for growth of sustainable marine aquaculture. Despite the range of species, production systems and circumstances, this study found a number of common themes in the literature; complicated and fragmented approaches to planning and licensing, property rights and the licence to operate, competition for space and marine spatial planning, emerging species and diversifying marine aquaculture production (seaweed production, Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture [IMTA], nutrient and carbon offsetting with aquaculture, offshore aquaculture and co-location and multiuse platforms), and the need to address knowledge gaps and use of decision-support tools. Planning and licensing can be highly complicated, so the UK is used as a case study to show more detailed examples that highlight the range of challenges and uncertainty that industry, regulators and policymakers face across interacting jurisdictions. There are many complexities, but this study shows that many countries have undergone, or are undergoing, similar challenges, suggesting that lessons can be learned by sharing knowledge and experiences, even across different species and production systems, rather than having a more insular focus.Output Status: Forthcoming/Available Onlin

Diel surface temperature range scales with lake size

Ecological and biogeochemical processes in lakes are strongly dependent upon water temperature. Long-term surface warming of many lakes is unequivocal, but little is known about the comparative magnitude of temperature variation at Diel timescales, due to a lack of appropriately resolved data. Here we quantify the pattern and magnitude of Diel temperature variability of surface waters using high-frequency data from 100 lakes. We show that the near-surface Diel temperature range can be substantial in summer relative to long-term change and, for lakes smaller than 3 km2, increases sharply and predictably with decreasing lake area. Most small lakes included in this study experience average summer Diel ranges in their near-surface temperatures of between 4 and 7°C. Large Diel temperature fluctuations in the majority of lakes undoubtedly influence their structure, function and role in biogeochemical cycles, but the full implications remain largely unexplored

Diel surface temperature range scales with lake size

Ecological and biogeochemical processes in lakes are strongly dependent upon water temperature. Long-term surface warming of many lakes is unequivocal, but little is known about the comparative magnitude of temperature variation at diel timescales, due to a lack of appropriately resolved data. Here we quantify the pattern and magnitude of diel temperature variability of surface waters using high-frequency data from 100 lakes. We show that the near-surface diel temperature range can be substantial in summer relative to long-term change and, for lakes smaller than 3 km2, increases sharply and predictably with decreasing lake area. Most small lakes included in this study experience average summer diel ranges in their near-surface temperatures of between 4 and 7°C. Large diel temperature fluctuations in the majority of lakes undoubtedly influence their structure, function and role in biogeochemical cycles, but the full implications remain largely unexplored

Integrating Blue: How do we make Nationally Determined Contributions work for both blue carbon and local coastal communities?

Blue Carbon Ecosystems (BCEs) help mitigate and adapt to climate change but their integration into policy, such as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), remains underdeveloped. Most BCE conservation requires community engagement, hence community-scale projects must be nested within the implementation of NDCs without compromising livelihoods or social justice. Thirty-three experts, drawn from academia, project development and policy, each developed ten key questions for consideration on how to achieve this. These questions were distilled into ten themes, ranked in order of importance, giving three broad categories of people, policy & finance, and science & technology. Critical considerations for success include the need for genuine participation by communities, inclusive project governance, integration of local work into national policies and practices, sustaining livelihoods and income (for example through the voluntary carbon market and/or national Payment for Ecosystem Services and other types of financial compensation schemes) and simplification of carbon accounting and verification methodologies to lower barriers to entry

Protecting Seagrass Through Payments for Ecosystem Services: A Community Guide

Shilland, R., Wanjiru, A., Mohamed, A., Grimsditch, G., & Huxham, M. (2020). Protecting Seagrass Through Payments for Ecosystem Services: A Community Guide. Nairobi, Kenya: United Nations Environnment Program