Mangroves are a coastal ecosystem that provide various ecosystem services, serving as habitats for biota, protecting the coast from erosion, supplying fish stocks, and supporting various economic sectors such as fisheries and tourism. Additionally, mangroves are a blue carbon ecosystem that can absorb carbon and sequester it in their biomass and sediments.

Coinciding with the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, the Global Ocean Accounts Partnership (GOAP) along with The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) held a workshop on Blue Carbon Accounting on Wednesday, July 26, 2023, through an online platform. The event aimed to provide an understanding of ecosystem and economic accounting methodologies for blue carbon ecosystems to the recipients of the Blue Carbon Accelerator Fund (BCAF).

The activity started with opening remarks by Chenae Neilson from the Australian Commonwealth Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment, and Water (DCCEEW), followed by introductory presentations from Jordan Gacutan, Dr. Taina Loureiro, and Arlette Schramm from GOAP about blue carbon ecosystems, ecosystem accounting, and finances for nature-based solutions.

The next session focused on ecosystem accounting concepts by Jordan Gacutan and carbon accounting components for mangroves and seagrass by Dr. Taina Loureiro, followed by practical examples, which are remote sensing options for blue carbon at the object scale by Dr. Eleanor Bruce from the University of Sydney and Indonesia’s mangrove ecosystem account - field survey by Heidi Retnoningtyas, the blue carbon team leader from Yayasan Rekam Nusantara unit Fisheries Resource Center of Indonesia (FRCI).

Through this workshop, it is hoped that BCAF recipients can develop carbon accounts in their respective working areas according to the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) standards and establish a network among BCAF recipients.