The Nordic Blue Carbon project and the Norwegian Blue Forests Network explore blue carbon in a Scandinavian contextBlue carbon ecosystems include mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and saltwater marshes, which are noted for their ability to store and sequester atmospheric carbon, thereby helping to address the global climate challenge.Their importance for both climate mitigation and adaptation strategies was recently highlighted in several reports, such as the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy and the IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and the Cryosphere. Further, the Nordic countries adopted a Ministerial Declaration on Oceans and Climate which extends Nordic cooperation to several areas highly relevant for blue carbon habitats.Indeed, blue carbon habitats have an important place in the Nordic countries. According to a study by Boström et al. (2014), the Nordic seagrass meadows cover some 2'000 km2, and another study showed that some of the meadows with the highest blue carbon storage are found along the Nordic coastline. Furthermore, Gunderson et al. (2011) identified an area of Norwegian kelp forests of around 8'000 km2.The estimates for blue carbon habitats will be updated by the Nordic Blue Carbon project by mid-2020.
Nordic Blue Carbon
