Pacific Islands Blue Carbon Knowledge Exchange Network: Seagrass Mapping and Monitoring Activities

Column go through U.S. Ambassador Joel Ehrenreich

Climate change impacts the national security of Pacific nations and the lives, health, and livelihoods of their citizens. As a Pacific nation, the United States is committed to working with the Republic of Palau and other Pacific Island Countries (PICs) to adapt to and respond to this threat.

Palau is fortunate to have several natural resources that help mitigate the harmful effects of climate change. One resource that is often overlooked is seagrass. If you have ever walked the coast at low tide, or boated or kayaked in the Rock Islands, you have probably seen seagrass beds. Seagrass provides important habitat for species such as meas (rabbit fish) and cheled (sea cucumber), which are important food resources for Palauans. Seagrass is also an important food resource for uel (sea turtle) and mesekiu (dugong). Seagrass also protects neighboring coral reefs by blocking upland erosion. Finally, these ecosystems, like neighboring mangroves, fight climate change by removing and storing large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This carbon is known as blue carbon.

Blue Carbon (BC) is carbon captured by ocean and marine coastal ecosystems such as seagrasses, mangroves, and temperate salt marshes. Although these three coastal ecosystems make up only 0.5% of the seafloor, they store up to 70% of the carbon in ocean sediments. Protecting and restoring Pacific Island mangroves and seagrasses can significantly help offset and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and increase the resilience of coastal areas and coastal populations. This is the main reason why the U.S. Embassy in Koror appointed Dr. Rich MacKenzie as a Blue Carbon Climate Fellow at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment.

To date, blue carbon research in the Pacific has focused primarily on mangroves, with little information available on seagrass ecosystems. A better understanding of the spatial extent and carbon stocks of seagrass ecosystems in the Pacific is needed to improve conservation and restoration efforts. Such data are also important for developing values ​​that can be used in national reports, such as Palau’s Third Greenhouse Gas Report, or to meet Palau’s Nationally Determined Contribution.

These efforts to advance climate change mitigation and adaptation are an important aspect of the U.S.-Pacific Partnership with Pacific Island Countries. In April, Palau hosted the Pacific Islands Blue Carbon Knowledge Exchange Network’s Seagrass Mapping and Monitoring Event. This was the first event of its kind and focused on a national assessment and inventory of seagrasses across Palau, using a peer-to-peer learning approach led by the U.S. Forest Service, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Environment (MAFE), and the Palau Office of Land and Resource Information Systems (PALARIS). The Blue Carbon Dream Team consisted of participants from government, universities, and non-governmental organizations in Palau (MAFE, Ministry of Finance, PALARIS, TNC), Fiji (Ministry of Fisheries and Forestry, Conservation International, University of the South Pacific), and Samoa (Ministry of Fisheries, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Samoa Conservation Society, National University of Samoa) who worked together to learn and implement methods to map seagrass areas and measure carbon stocks in Palau. Future events will focus on mangroves. At the end of both events, Palau will have mangrove and seagrass data to use in its national reporting, help it achieve its nationally determined contribution, or participate in other carbon activities. “This data will also provide sound scientific information to make informed decisions about the role of Palau’s seagrass and mangrove ecosystems in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies,” said Dr. Rich MacKenzie, Blue Carbon Climate Fellow, U.S. Forest Service/U.S. Embassy/MAFE. “There have been many workshops in the region discussing blue carbon, but few have focused on seagrasses, and none have taken our approach of forming a Pacific Island Dream Team and conducting a national assessment. The BC Dream Team is probably the most important outcome of this event. This team can continue to work together in the future to assess and inventory seagrasses and mangroves in Fiji and Samoa.” Mohammed Abdullah Bin Shorah, Remote Sensing Specialist, Fiji Ministry of Forestry and Fisheries, was particularly excited to be here. “Dr. MacKenzie’s approach of building a team of Pacific Islanders and having them work together as a group/team is a first-of-its-kind approach and challenging to put together due to the diversity of the Pacific Ocean States.”

For more information on the Pacific Islands Blue Carbon Knowledge Exchange Network, please contact Dr. Rich MacKenzie, Blue Carbon Climate Fellow at the U.S. Embassy at richard.mackenzie@usda.gov.

Joel Ehrendrich is a career official in the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service. He was appointed Ambassador to the Republic of Palau in August 2023.

related