CI-Atabey Foundation
Vanga Blue Forest – Co-Generating Biodiversity and Blue Carbon Credits
Key Details
Project Lead: The Association for Coastal Ecosystem Services (ACES)
Financial Innovation: Credits
Supporting Partners: Vanga Blue Forest Community-Based Organisation; Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute; Edinburgh Napier University
Support: The UK’s Blue Planet Fund
Location: Kenya
Project Timeline: Ongoing (2024-2027)
People Supported: 8,674
Summary
The Association for Coastal Ecosystem Services (ACES) aims to co-generate biodiversity and carbon credits for seagrass ecosystems in the Vanga Blue Forest, Kenya.
Seagrass grows around the world, often adjacent to mangrove forests. In these locations, there is an opportunity to develop multiple payments for ecosystem services through a ‘stapled’ credit approach – contributing to longer-term, more secure, and sustainable funding for seagrass conservation. In this context, ACES is implementing biodiversity credits for seagrass in the Vanga Blue Forest, which will be offered alongside carbon credits to decrease dependence on carbon finance alone.
This holistic approach to ecosystem services highlights the financial value of biodiversity both locally and internationally and aims to bring increased development benefits to the local community.
Challenge
There are multiple challenges to consider when including seagrass in carbon projects1 including financial, technical and political barriers to carbon calculations, along with monitoring and tenureship, particularly in a community context. This project aims to decrease Vanga Blue Forest’s reliance on financing through carbon credits alone.
Biodiversity credits offer a new, though under-developed, solution to financing nature conservation, particularly in contexts where carbon financing is otherwise inaccessible. They are also designed with the aim of reducing the rate of poverty in the local area, which is the primary driver of ecosystem degradation.
Solution
By ‘stapling’ carbon credits with biodiversity credits issued under Plan Vivo’s biodiversity standard (PV Nature), Vanga Blue Forest will develop a seagrass meadows crediting framework, demonstrating a holistic approach to nature conservation. This project will enhance biodiversity and local resilience by delivering community benefits, building local institutions, and acting as a demonstration site for other blue carbon projects to expand their scope.
Scaling and Next Steps
The project will include several steps towards scaling. First, ACES will establish a sustainable funding mechanism for seagrass conservation in Vanga Bay through biodiversity financing; which will act as a demonstration site, becoming the first project globally to accredit a marine ecosystem under a biodiversity crediting standard. Next, the project will demonstrate how carbon and biodiversity credits can be co-generated in a marine context to increase the viability of accredited blue ecosystem projects worldwide.
This will enable the ‘blue carbon’ market to diversify away from reliance on carbon credits and demonstrate how biodiversity conservation can be used to leverage sustainable financing for communities.
