Blue Carbon Facility
A facility that provides technical assistance and financial support to blue carbon projects with scalability potential and the ability to generate returns through blue carbon credits.
A facility that provides technical assistance and financial support to blue carbon projects with scalability potential and the ability to generate returns through blue carbon credits. This includes mangrove, seagrass & tidal marshes restoration and conservation projects, yet projects can be linked to various other income streams such as seaweed production, sustainable fishing, ecotourism, and coastal protection insurance payments.
- Mangroves and seagrasses represent an important and abundant blue carbon ecosystem across the Caribbean.
- Mangrove restoration can access carbon, blue, and resilience credits, as well as insurance-related payments. There are also good possibilities to link the blue carbon projects with other income streams such as ecotourism, sustainable fisheries, mangrove honey, and seaweed farming.
- Blue carbon receives increasing attention with more TA funds available to set up carbon offsetting and PES mechanisms. As such, this FM allows for synergies with existing actors that are providing funds for blue carbon, such as TNC, who might be able to provide TA and support the selling of credits in the carbon market; and carbon offtakers, including international funds and regional companies, who might be able to provide funding and willing to be early buyers.
- Demand for blue carbon projects exceeds supply, with buyers valuing additional resilience and fisheries benefits.
- Can leverage CBF's existing dialogue with shipping companies and the tourism sector to gauge their interest in developing a voluntary carbon offset mechanism in the Caribbean.
- The fund would take the role of a regional management unit able to aggregate projects. This will allow the FM to achieve the regional scale expected both in terms of finance and impact, benefiting coastal and marine ecosystems in multiple countries.
The Blue Carbon Facility aims to finance blue carbon projects focused at the conservation and restoration of coastal ecosystems for their blue carbon value. Operational projects can access carbon, biodiversity and resilience credits, generate payments for ecosystem services or engage in activities such as algae production, sustainable fishing or ecotourism.
The Blue Carbon Facility consists of a revolving blue carbon account managed by the CBF in which the BluEFin project and other donors, FIs, and corporates provide initial capital to identify feasible blue carbon projects in the Caribbean.
The Blue Carbon Facility function as a mechanism to provide funding for the development of projects and function as an aggregator of projects, achieving a higher scale (hectares/ credits) to attract investors with centralized management.
The projects that are considered feasible can be offered to an offtaker that would remunerate the CBF Blue Carbon Facility for the feasibility costs, creating a revolving mechanism for the fund, so that other blue carbon projects can be financed. The off taker can also provide the funding for project development, conservation/ restoration costs and verification, which are the most substantial costs. This would allow the CBF to focus on the identification, feasibility, and management of the projects, requiring a smaller amount of seed capital to mobilise private finance.
The offtaker would acquire part of the credits at a cost price and allow the CBF to sell the remaining credits in the carbon market to obtain higher prices. The carbon sold at higher prices could also contribute to the replenishment of the Blue Carbon Facility, after covering all project costs.
The NCTFs can manage the proceeds from the projects with the communities or MPAs. The annual revenue generation would be in-country, through carbon credits selling and additional income streams (other payments for ecosystem services, ecotourism, fishing, or sustainable seaweed production as examples).
Stakeholders Involved:
- Funders (e.g., DFIs, philanthropic sources, private sector stakeholders)
- Project developers, blue economy entrepreneurs, local communities, local CBOs, and NGOs
- MPA managers and public authorities (if area is within MPA)
- Local NCTFs and technical assistance (TA) providers to help develop the projects, channel resources and TA for the project design, support monitoring & measurement of ecosystem services and verification
- Carbon credit / PES offtakers (e.g., international fund and corporations, shipping, hotel, cruising, and tourist companies, commercial fisheries, consumers)
- Potential intermediaries linking buyers with service providers (e.g., travel platform Wayaj)
Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adastrongtation Trust (SeyCCAT)
Regional relevance; combines blue carbon credits, blue bonds, debt swaps; clear institutional framework and documented outcomes.
The Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT) was established as an independent public-private partnership (PPP) to manage the proceeds of a historic debt-for-nature swap. This initiative, developed in collaboration with the Paris Club of Creditors and The Nature Conservancy, aimed to restructure part of Seychelles' national debt in exchange for investments in ocean conservation. As part of the agreement, Seychelles committed to a marine spatial planning (MSP) process and to expanding its marine protected areas from approximately 1% to over 30% of its exclusive economic zone.
Since its creation, SeyCCAT has become the main platform for marine biodiversity conservation and MSP in Seychelles. It supports a wide range of research and development projects related to ocean conservation, sustainable development, and adaptation to climate change. Its strong record of accomplishment in fund management led to the allocation of USD 3 million from the Seychelles Blue Bond (launched in 2018), which SeyCCAT disburses through its "blue grants fund".
Colombia Blue Carbon Project
A Colombia Blue Carbon Project in the Gulf of Morrosquillo combines mangroves and salt marshes regeneration to generate blue carbon credits.
Bermuda Sea Grass ProjectThe Bermuda Sea Grass project is a public-private partnership restoring and protecting seagrass areas. It has been set up by the government and a carbon offsetting intermediary. The project received corporate CSR payments to partially fund the restoration project.
Kenya Mangrove RestorationIn Kenya, three communities are restoring 460 ha of mangrove forests, which has so far sold $44,433 of international carbon credits using the Scotland-registered charity Association for Coastal Ecosystem Services (ACES).
Philippines RISCOIn the Philippines, Conservation International is creating a Restoration Insurance Service Company (RISCO) to capture the economic value of threatened mangroves through two revenue streams: 1) insurance-related payments for the modelled flood risk reduction benefits of mangroves and 2) blue carbon payments for the validated climate mitigation value of mangroves.
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