Progress report for
Knowledge sharing for the protection and restoration of coastal blue carbon ecosystems through the International Partnership for Blue Carbon and in the Indo-Pacific.
Achievement at a glance
Australia has completed this commitment but will continue to take an active role in the IndoPacific region including by leading the International Partnership for Blue Carbon.The IPBC hosted a workshop in the Philippines in August 2017 to raise awareness and share knowledge about blue carbon. Government policy makers, experts and project implementers attended and identified areas for future collaboration across the Coral Triangle region. Subsequently, Australia supported the development of a blue carbon learning module for policy makers. The first workshop using the module was held in August 2018 and attended by Indonesian government representatives.
Australia supported a blue carbon conference in March 2018 for the Indian Ocean region. Government representatives developed a regional understanding of coastal blue carbon ecosystems, discussed technical and policy approaches to their management, and identified a pathway to collaborate and coordinate efforts, including research collaborations.
Australia also supported the Asia Pacific Rainforest Summit, held in Bali in April 2018, where the important role of mangroves were highlighted. Indonesias mangroves are estimated to store as much as 3.14billion tons of carbon a third of the carbon stored in ecosystems worldwide. Participants here also highlighted the value of sharing knowledge to improve management of these ecosystems.
The IPBC has now grown to almost 40 members. New members include: Fiji, Korea, Monaco, PNG, Somalia, the United Kingdom, E2E Foundation, EcoViva, GreenFleet, Restore Americas Estuaries, Mangrove Action Project. Partnerships for Environmental Management in the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA), Port and Airport Research Institute Japan (PARI), The Blue Carbon Lab (Deakin University), the Pacific Island Development Forum (PIDF), the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, University of Melbourne and Winrock International.