Blue Carbon Projects
“Seagrass captures carbon up to 35 times faster than established tropical rainforests” (WWF)
FROM ICE TO OCEANS: The connection between Antarctic ice and its surrounding ocean is of paramount importance. With more focus being put on our blue planet, more is starting to be understood about how and why it may be one of the answers to restoring our planet’s balance.
Climate change is mostly centred around carbon emissions, with finding more and better ways to sequestrate carbon from the atmosphere being a key global focus. Marine Biologists advocate that the science behind Blue Carbon is encouraging, but it’s relatively new and more research is required.
In short Blue Carbon refers to the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems. These ecosystems capture and store carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, helping to mitigate climate change. They are highly effective at sequestering carbon because they can store it both in their biomass and in the sediment below.
Blue Carbon fundamentally requires ecosystem balance – between flora, fauna and human activity. So we carefully choose projects that aim to restore the habitat, thus restoring the balance and allowing nature to take back control and do what it is forever striving to do.
Alongside their Blue Carbon values, these projects can offer a multitude of other benefits such as natural flood protection, water filtration, marine and bird habitats and fish nurseries. They also provide local engagement and social upliftment, which is so crucial in many areas.
There are vastly different manifestations of Blue Carbon from mangroves, kelp, seagrass, salt marshes, peatlands. All of which are found in estuaries, coastlines, inland deltas and islands, but all having different opportunities and challenges. Our challenge is to find and support the most impactful.
We have chosen to support some key projects along the coastline of the Western Cape, our gateway. Click on the side menu to discover more about them.
Salt Marsh restoration – Berg River Estuary, Western Cape South Africa
The Berg Estuary has huge natural diversity and has been awarded a RAMSAR site of international importance.”
In partnership with BirdLife South Africa we are supporting a large scale project to restore a vital salt marsh in the Berg River Estuary.
The project plan includes:
- Upstream interventions, including removing collapsed bridges, repairing old roads, preventing traffic from entering marshland and the removal of alien vegetation.
- In the estuary the river banks are to be rehabilitated, with the planting of 3 species of salt marsh plants.
- Some of the plants can be transferred from a nearby donor site, however, the bulk of the quantity of plants required are to be grown at a nearby nursery. The plants would need approximately 6-12months of growth to be viable for planting.
- BirdLife SA have a team of local people who are able to undertake the planting.
- A good relationship with the local landowners and farmers who own the ‘supratidal’ high water mark land is allowing this crucial rehabilitation to take place on private land.
Palmiet Peatland Project – Onrus, Western Cape South Africa
“Restoration of 10,200 year old Peat Wetland”
A series of extreme weather events caused the collapse and disintegration of a 10,200 year old Peat-Palmiet Wetland along the Onrus coastline in the Western Cape of South Africa.
Peatlands cover only about three per cent of our planet’s land, but account for nearly half the world’s wetlands. They store vast amounts of carbon— twice as much carbon as all the world’s forests.
The plan to rehabilitate it is as complex as it is crucial. The initial phase is to remove all alien species of vegetation, scaffold the banks of the river, grow and replant Palmiet – the plant responsible for major carbon sequestration and the web that holds the ecosystem together.
The ecological, environmental and social components of this project make it an ideal and auspicious beginning to what we hope will be a truly effectual Foundation.
Seagrass – Langebaan Lagoon, Western Cape South Africa
“Seagrass meadows are believed to sequester carbon at a faster rate than terrestrial forests.”
- About Seagrass:
- “Globally, seagrass captures carbon up to 35 times faster than established tropical rainforests, accounting for 10-18% of total ocean carbon storage despite covering less than 0.1% of the seafloor.” (Source: WWF)
- Sequestration of CO2 can be up to 650 tonnes/km2/annum.
- Carbon is locked up in sediment for long term, which may be hundreds of years.
- Seagrass meadows are also an active fish nursery.
- As a community project it improves the quality of the area for fishermen and tourism and is a source of local employment.
Proposed project in South Africa:
The foundation is looking to invest in growing seagrass meadows along the South African coastline, whilst furthering the scientific research for optimal propagation techniques and growing conditions.
The indigenous species of seagrass in South Africa is Zostera Capensis (Cape Dwarf-Eelgrass). Whilst the primary reason for the seagrass loss has been human activity, under the right conditions it should be possible to restore what was there before.
There is an area of approximately 3 km2 (~3 ha) of seagrass within the Lagoon, of which roughly another 2 km2could potentially be restored in the Lagoon. The project will require growing the seagrass off site in tanks and transplanting it by hand into the lagoon.
