Investigating the potential for a blue carbon economy on Australia’s northern coastline

Abstract

The term ‘Blue Carbon’ (BC) recognises the ability of mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrasses to capture and store carbon in their soils and biomass. Given their anoxic sediment, BC ecosystems can sequester up to as much as four times more carbon per hectare, and store it 30–50 times faster, than terrestrial forests. Australia has some of the world’s largest BC storage capacity, with 5–11% of global BC soil stocks and 2–7% of annual BC sequestration, based on available global estimate. Evidence indicates that mangrove and saltmarsh degradation from cyclone damage, feral damage and disease, is occurring throughout the Northern Territory (NT). This is a growing issue with feral animal populations degrading Indigenous lands and areas of conservation significance. This cumulative pressure on BC habitat means that northern Australia is uniquely positioned to expand BC methods to also account for protection and restoration of degraded coastal habitats including freshwater wetlands that have been damaged by non-native feral animals. Researchers from Charles Darwin University (CDU), University of Queensland (UQ), and the Northern Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance Ltd (NAILSMA) recently worked to explore the opportunity and potential for economically viable BC methods in the NT. The study had a particular focus on Aboriginal Land gazetted under the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act (1976) (Cth). We present the research outcomes and identify the pathway to focused research on BC stores and tailored methods for generating Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) and potentially biodiversity credits, in the NT.