National Blue Carbon Dialogue

Communique on:

Blue Carbon Actions

A national Blue Carbon Dialogue took place on 27^th of March, 2025, at Mnarani Beach Club, Kilifi County. The workshop, themed “Enhancing Local Level Governance of Blue Carbon in Kenya”, provided a platform to deliberate collective actions towards harnessing blue carbon ecosystems (BCEs) as vital tools for nature and community livelihood.

The workshop served as a platform for government agencies, civil society, expert groups, and local community organizations to provide guidance on the integration of blue carbon into the climate actions and development agenda.

Blue carbon’ is the term used to denote carbon captured and stored by coastal wetlands, particularly mangroves, seagrass beds and salt marshes ecosystems. These ecosystems capture and store 3-10 times more carbon than their terrestrial counterparts; as such could play a critical role in mitigating climate change.  

In Kenya, major BCE are mangroves and seagrass beds. Covering approximately 61,000 ha for mangroves and 39,693 ha for seagrasses, these ecosystems store more than 75. million tCO₂e and sequester an additional 7.5 tCO₂e/ha/year, offering significant carbon credit potential. Over the next 20 years, blue carbon ecosystems could generate up to $440 million in revenue from carbon credits alone. This is in addition to the support value of blue carbon ecosystems to fisheries, shoreline protection, and in provisions of harvestable wood and non-wood products.

While Kenya has made significant strides in incorporating blue carbon ecosystems into policy frameworks, these frameworks have mostly focuAsed on mangroves rather than seagrasses. Notable achievements in mangrove management include, the development of the National Mangrove Ecosystem Management Plan, the National Mangrove Ecosystem Restoration Guidelines, National Mangrove Portal, Lamu Mangrove Harvest Plan, and  the Mangrove Nursery Manual. These management tools are critical and are designed to guide the sustainable management of mangrove ecosystems, involving stakeholders at all levels and ensuring both ecosystem resilience and a balance between ecological health and community needs. In contrast, seagrasses have received less attention, being addressed only in the Coral Reef and Seagrass Ecosystem Conservation Strategy (2014-2018), which is up for review.  Considering the vital importance of the seagrass seascape, similar tools are required to be developed. Furthermore, there is a critical need to enhance the visibility of seagrass ecosystems.

The dialogue highlighted key barriers and opportunities for integrating Kenya’s blue carbon ecosystems into climate strategies and development plans:

1. Seagrasses are poorly mapped, hindering their inclusion in national climate strategies.
2. Total economic valuation of blue carbon ecosystems is required to inform policy and management decisions.
3. Exclusion of soil carbon due to resource constraints and inadequate technical expertise limits financial returns from blue carbon markets.
4. The lack of strong policy tools for the management of seagrass ecosystems also hinders the cohesive and collective management of these ecosystems, leaving actions at the level of un- coordinated sectoral laws;
5. Inadequate coordination among state agencies leads to inconsistent management of blue carbon habitats.
6. Exclusion of BCEs from national emission inventory and reporting could risk under or overestimations.
7. High compliance costs for carbon trading complicate implementation of community-led blue carbon projects
8. There is a need for the creation of a centralized platform for data sharing, collaboration, and dissemination of BCE data.
9. International collaboration is necessary in building technical capacity, raising awareness, and mobilizing resources for blue carbon.

Urged the need to undertake policy measures to enhance blue carbon conservation and management by:

1. Utilization of cutting-edge research and innovative technologies to accurately map and monitor changes in BCE and the impacts.
2. Enhance methodologies for measuring, reporting and verification of blue carbon aligned with international best practices
3. Standardize carbon accounting methodologies and incorporate the total economic value by adopting the UN’s System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA) framework.
4. Establish policies that recognize the value and inclusion of soil carbon in carbon financing, offer conservation incentives, simplify project permitting, and develop accessible data platforms with linkages to state managed databases for blue carbon management.
5. Improve coordination among government agencies to ensure integrated management of BCEs, e.g., establishment of a national blue carbon governance structure and/or working group
6. Mainstream BCEs into climate actions and coastal development programs.
7. Develop a blue carbon visibility and dissemination strategy for local communities and practitioners.
8. Establish BCE management evaluation frameworks for routine resource inventory and adaptive management.
9. Develop innovative financing mechanisms for sustainability and impact.
10. Promote adoption of BCE management tools and support inclusion of marginalized groups in policy formulation and decision-making for resource equity and better environmental outcomes.
11. Advocate for increased external climate finance through programs like the World Bank’s Financing Locally Led Climate Actions (FLLoCA), to fund blue carbon restoration and community resilience initiatives.

Recognized key government agencies, including Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute (KMFRI), Kenya Forest Service (KFS), Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), Kenya Fisheries Service (KeFS), Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA); civil society; international partners; and the local community for being at the forefront in enhancing conservation of blue carbon ecosystems (BCE) in Kenya.

Acknowledged and thanked partners including the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), WWF-Kenya, Wetlands International East Africa (WI-EA), and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), among others, for their contribution and support in conservation of these critical ecosystems. Notably, the UN’s Go-Blue Project, TNC, Betty-Moore Foundation, WWF, and ORRAA for funding this blue carbon dialogue.

Recommended that the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy, and Maritime Affairs urgently take policy actions to fully harness the potential of blue carbon for nature and community benefits. This can be achieved through the creation of enabling policies that strengthen the implementation of nature-based solutions, such as Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes, for multiple ecosystem services, including carbon and biodiversity offset programs, and the integration of their outcomes into ocean accounting frameworks.

To fast-track implementations of actions contained in this communique, it was recommended that this statement on blue carbon be communicated to the Ministry of Mining, Blue Economy, and Maritime Affairs, through; The CEO, KMFRI.

Theory of Change

Improved governance, achieved through collective action, will catalyze the effective utilization and preservation of blue carbon ecosystems, yielding benefits for the climate, local communities, and the environment.