The NOAA Blue Carbon Inventory (BCI) Project recently conducted a training workshop designed to advance the integration of coastal blue carbon in Costa Rica’s national greenhouse gas inventory (February 28-March 2, 2023; Nicoya, Guanacaste, Costa Rica). In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) issued its Supplement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gases: Wetlands, creating a new mandate for governments to include coastal wetlands in their greenhouse gas inventories. Understanding, tracking and reporting on carbon storage and sequestration in coastal wetlands can underpin planning and actions to manage these systems to realize co-benefits for mitigation, adaptation and ecosystem services. The NOAA BCI Project, led by the Climate Program Office (CPO) in partnership with the Marine Protected Areas Center, utilizes funding provided by the U.S. Department of State’s Transparency in Emissions Accounting and Reporting (TEAR) effort to provide technical assistance to partner countries.
A multi-institutional team organized and carried out the workshop, which included participants from USG entities such as NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of State, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC); experts from the private and NGO sector (e.g., Silvestrum Climate Associates and Conservation International); and technical experts involved in various aspects of Costa Rica’s inventory of carbon sinks and sources from the Ministry of Environment and Energy, including the National Meteorological Institute and the National System of Conservation Areas (SINAC). The workshop had three main components: 1) developing a shared understanding of blue carbon and the 2013 Wetlands Supplement, including its implications for Costa Rica’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and the potential institutional arrangements needed to implement the Wetlands Supplement; 2) sharing data collection and mapping approaches and best practices for mangrove ecosystems for the purpose of inventory development; and 3) practical, hands on exercises with inventory development tools. Participants developed a draft work plan for next steps in the advancement of this partnership. Lisa Vaughan from CPO’s Climate and Societal Interactions Division participated on behalf of NOAA.
For more information, contact Lisa Vaughan.
Image credit: Workshop participants