Generating income from
mangroves through climate
change mitigation
Dr. David J. Ganz
Chief of Party
USAID’s LEAF Program, Bangkok
dganz@leafasia.org

Overview
Possible climate change mitigation activities
Carbon financing
Income for Coastal Communities for Mangrove Protection
and Conservation

Introduction
• Increasing interest in marketing carbon from
forests
• Markets for other environmental services are
emerging but slow to develop (ex. PFES)
• Mangroves contain large amounts of carbon and
have high sequestration rates in comparison
with other forest types and land uses.
• A high proportion of carbon is contained in the
soil and released with mangrove conversions.

Possible mitigation activities
REDD+ (reducing emissions from deforestation and
degradation, conserving and enhancing carbon
stocks and SFM)
Afforestation and reforestation
Increased use of harvested wood products for
increased carbon stocks and fossil fuel substitution

Carbon financing
Voluntary Carbon
Markets
Corporate support
REDD+

Compliance mechanism
Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) only allows
afforestation and reforestation, not REDD+
CDM does not include soil carbon for small projects
(<16 000 tonnes CO2eyr-1 or ~500ha)
Changes to hydrology not allowed for small projects
Kyoto regime extended for 8 years to 2020
Validation and registration costs are very high
(~$160,000 + $14,000 every 5 years for verification)

Voluntary carbon markets
The Voluntary Carbon Standard (VCS) is the best
recognised of the voluntary standards
Includes REDD+ and agriculture
Carbon credits verified under the VCS fetch higher
prices than ETS systems that allow forest carbon.
Soil carbon can be included in small projects.
Peat rewetting methodology is now available so
project should be able to take advantages of
hydrological cycle changes (ex. Deserted fish
ponds).

Key considerations
Value of carbon credits may not exceed $200/ha/yr even
under the best conditions (>1000+ha to break even);
Value probably significantly less as up to 60% of credits
may need to be kept in a ‘buffer’ depending on risk (10%
of buffer is released every 5 years if risk proves to be low);
Costs of setting up institutional mechanism and
distributing benefits also need to be considered; and
Policy and legislative support and carbon credit ownership
needs to be clarified with relevant agencies.

Key considerations
Cap and trade markets do not admit forest carbon credits
and motivation for detailed quantification and accreditation
remains low
REDD projects in threatened degraded mangrove areas
with deep soils should generate most carbon credits
Projects on abandoned fish ponds may also make sense
Methodologies still need to be refined and carbon
sequestration and storage is highly variable between and
within mangrove areas and not well understood

Key considerations
Demand for CC mitigation and conservation remains and
forest carbon initiatives have often been aimed at
conservation and socio-economic development anyway
Investments associated with establishing community
forestry in Cambodia average $54,900 per site

Corporate Support
Selling bundled services, a ‘sustainable development
product,’ may represent a better opportunity
Direct CSR helping local communities
Popular in SE Asian context.

• Mangroves for the Future (MFF)
• Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
• USAID’s Lowering Emissions in Asia’s
Forests (USAID LEAF)
Income for Coastal Communities
for Mangrove Protection
• Thailand
• Vietnam
• Pakistan

Project Objective
• To develop a low cost mechanism
enabling corporate investors to
responsibly promote mangrove
conservation, carbon emissions reduction
and sustainable development through the
provision of funding to local communities
for livelihood diversification, resource
enhancement and coastal protection.

Project Rationale
• Mangroves contain large amounts of carbon
• Coastal communities need support for alternative
livelihood development
• Carbon prices are low and may not increase much in the
medium-term
• Costs of entry into carbon markets is prohibitive for small
scale forestry projects
• Demand for CC mitigation and conservation remains
• Direct market mechanisms are needed.

Project Approach
• Work in conjunction with existing project/s
to develop mechanism for wider
replication.
• Seek broad institutional support to
increase robustness and build confidence.

Output 1 – Improved understanding of conditions for
establishing mangrove carbon and livelihoods projects
• Activity 1.1 Inception WS/ Expert meeting
• Activity 1.2 Assessment of funding
availability
• Activity 1.3 ‘Develop model that assesses
the role of mangroves in carbon storage
and sequestration’ – bypass measurement
expenses.

Output 2 – Target communities identified, engaged and
supported
Output 3 – A mechanism to incentivise mangrove
conservation and benefit adjacent communities
Output 4 – Costs quantified and financing options
developed
Output 4 – Implementation partners for regional
replication

Thank you!