Wetlands Australia 32: Blue Carbon Strategy for South Australia

Author: Daniel Hanisch and Louisa Perrin, South Australian Department for Environment and Water

The South Australian Government has developed a new strategy with help from the Premier’s Climate Change Council, with positive implications for coastal biodiversity.

The Blue Carbon Strategy for South Australia, sets a path to protect and restore valuable vegetated ecosystems along South Australia’s coastline, including mangroves, saltmarsh and seagrass meadows.

These aquatic plant communities store carbon in their living biomass and, even more significantly, in their anoxic soils. Referred to as ‘blue carbon’, these ecosystems can store up to four times as much carbon per area as land-based forests and, if left undisturbed, can store carbon in their soils over hundreds or thousands of years.

Posidonia sinuosa. Photo: Simon Bryars.

The 5000 km long coastline of South Australia is globally important for its unique biodiversity, with approximately 85–90% of all South Australian marine plants and animals found nowhere else. Covering over a million hectares, blue carbon ecosystems are a major contributor to this biodiversity providing shelter and food to an incredible variety of animals, from tiny invertebrates to large fish, molluscs, marine mammals and birds. This biodiversity provides important socio-economic services to South Australians. For example, the southern calamari is a commercially and recreationally valuable species that is highly dependent on seagrass, to which it attaches its eggs. Unsurprisingly, the majority of South Australia’s annual Calamari catch occurs in the Spencer and St Vincent Gulfs where extensive seagrass beds are found. Other blue carbon ecosystem services include water filtration, storm-surge protection and providing places for recreation and ecotourism activities.

Linking coastal restoration to carbon markets can provide a financial incentive for coastal restoration that supports multiple ecosystem services, optimised by diverse biological systems. The South Australian Government is working closely with the Commonwealth and other states and territories to develop blue carbon methods under the national Emissions Reduction Fund. This will enable projects to generate carbon credits that can then be sold, providing a revenue stream for project developers and investors.

Through the Blue Carbon Strategy, the South Australian Government will take the lead in realising blue carbon opportunities that will protect and enhance the biodiversity values of our wonderful coastal assets.

Blue Carbon Strategy cover - Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary wetlands, St Kilda, South Australia

Further information

South Australian Department for Environment and Water: Climate Change Strategy and Blue Carbon Strategy

To discuss potential blue carbon projects and partnerships, send an email to DEWClimateChange@sa.gov.au.