COP26 Blue Zone panel registration

COP26 Event: Coastal Blue Carbon Panel - The vital role of mangroves for climate change mitigation and adaptation

09:00-10:00, Saturday, 6th November 2021, live from the Commonwealth Pavilion (Blue Zone)

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All fields are required

Mangrove forests and other coastal ecosystems are the ultimate nature-based solutions for both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Tidal wetlands capture and store carbon dioxide – coastal blue carbon – and they do this at rates far greater than most tropical rainforests. Protecting and restoring mangroves is an affordable way to help avert dangerous climate breakdown. Their protection and restoration will be vital to achieving the large-scale carbon drawdown essential if we are to have a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. And it is available to us right now.

Mangroves also sustain the daily lives of hundreds of millions of coastal people, providing critical services from timber and fuel to shrimp, crab and fish. They underpin wider offshore fisheries, stop coastal erosion and improve water quality. Without them, coral reefs and the broader marine ecosystem cannot thrive. Healthy mangroves also act as natural storm barriers, saving lives and protecting infrastructure against more extreme storms and rising seas.

Mangroves deliver a multitude of critical services and benefits to people − including some of the poorest and most vulnerable on earth, who stand on the front lines of climate breakdown. Mangroves are central to the adaptation and resilience of hundreds of millions of coastal people across the tropics. The IPCC’s SROCC report underscores the importance of coastal ecosystems, including mangroves. They are the ultimate nature-based solution.

The COP26 event

A one-hour panel event will take place on the Presidency’s Nature Day – Saturday 6th November – bringing together government representatives, civil society and world-renowned scientists from the Global South − including Colombia, Madagascar, Costa Rica, and Seychelles.The event will promote south-south knowledge and experience sharing by:

Highlighting the importance of mangroves in the context of global climate breakdown, from the perspective of coastal communities living on the frontline and governments working to ensure their countries’ blue economies are safeguarded;
Demonstrating how the conservation and restoration of coastal blue carbon can help ensure that countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement are sufficiently ambitious to tackle the climate emergency;
Explaining how, if the necessary policy and safeguarding frameworks are in place, carbon markets can be leveraged to fund and incentivise sustainable mangrove management and restoration;
Highlighting some of the policy and implementation barriers that must be tackled if mangrove blue carbon is to reach its full potential, as well as some potential solutions to these barriers.

The panellists are expected to include:

Mme Vahinala Baomiavotse Raharinirina, Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Madagascar
Sra. Cynthia Barzuna Gutiérrez, Vice Minister of Water and Seas, Costa Rica
Angelique Pouponneau, Chief Executive Officer, Seychelles’ Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust
Vatosoa Rakotondrazafy, MIHARI – Madagascar’s Locally Managed Marine Areas Network
Rahma Kivugo, Project Coordinator, Mikoko Pamoja community mangrove carbon project.

Actors from the Global South hold the key to mangrove conservation and restoration, so promoting their voices is the surest way of identifying the real barriers and finding the right levers for change. The UK’s leadership in the mangrove space combined with its hosting of COP26 provide a unique opportunity to correct the imbalance often present in the conventional north-south conservation discourse. This panel discussion will appeal to a broad range of stakeholders, all of whom have an important role to play in meeting the ambition of the Paris Agreement. These include country delegates interested in learning more about coastal blue carbon or sharing their experiences, the NGOs who work with these governments, civil society organisations and investors interested in the emerging blue carbon investment space.

To engage broader audiences, beyond those attending in person, and prompt action and debate, the event will also be streamed online, with the online participants encouraged to ask questions and engage with the panel, enabling networking, discussion and knowledge sharing.

This event will be led by Blue Ventures and Conservation International with support from CATIE and the Blue Carbon Initiative, which is coordinated by CI, IUCN and IOC-UNESCO.