Blue Carbon Strategy for South Australia 2020–2025.

The Blue Carbon Strategy 2020–2025 sets a path for the South Australian Government to establish a state-wide, evidence-based program of projects and research geared towards blue carbon ecosystem protection and restoration. Blue carbon is the carbon captured and stored in coastal ecosystems including seagrass meadows, saltmarshes and mangroves. These ecosystems are carbon sinks, accumulating and retaining carbon in the plants themselves and in the soils below.
The Plan's objectives are: 1) Connect blue carbon ecosystem restoration to carbon markets and other finance mechanisms. Key incentives for blue carbon projects are the ability to generate carbon credits from coastal restoration activities to realize financial returns. Actions support the development of a blue carbon Emissions Reduction Fund method. 2) Deliver research to quantify blue carbon and co-benefits. Actions include identify funding pathways and partners to deliver research priorities, develop a state-wide map of blue carbon stocks and sequestration rates, and improve valuation of co-benefits for inclusion in blue carbon project assessment. 3) Identify and implement blue carbon demonstration projects. Actions include partnering with the private sector to progress and scale-up blue carbon demonstration projects. 4) Integrate blue carbon into coastal policy, planning and management strategies. Actions encompass enable blue carbon ecosystem protection through state planning frameworks and develop planning tools and guidance for local and regional planning, promote and enable voluntary blue carbon offsetting for coastal and marine vegetation clearances, support protected wetland management under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands blue carbon resolution.