On November 28th, the NOAA Blue Carbon Inventory (BCI) Project participated in a webinar hosted by the The Department of State Regional Environmental, Science & Technology, and Health (ESTH) Hub for Central America and the Caribbean. Speakers included NOAA (Lisa Vaughan, NOAA Climate Program Office, and Zac Cannizzo, NOAA Marine Protected Areas Center), as well as NOAA BCI Project partners such as the U.S. EPA, Silvestrum Climate Associates, and the Costa Rican government.
This webinar highlighted the important role that NOAA and EPA are playing in providing support and expertise to countries around the world through the Department of State’s Transparency Accelerator initiatives, which the BCI Project is supported through. Presentations aimed to share the lessons learned and experience of the Costa Rican government, NOAA, and EPA, with the goal of serving as a model for countries in the region to follow in developing their own blue carbon and wetland conservation strategies. These strategies can generate co-benefits for adaptation by protecting coastal communities from storms, waves, erosion, and flooding; protecting biodiversity; and providing ecosystem services that support livelihoods, culture, food security, water quality, recreation, and tourism.
The NOAA BCI Project is a Department of State funded, multi-agency project led by NOAA’s Climate Program Office’s Adaptation Sciences program, in partnership with NOAA’s Marine Protected Areas Center, that supports partner countries’ efforts to include coastal wetlands in their greenhouse gas accounting and enhance the management of these critical ecosystems.
Watch the webinar here » (passcode ?5$C.mHT)
For more information, contact Amanda Catron.
Image credit: The Conservation/Shuttershock
