News archive

The Blue Forests project is working with partners across eight countries to test blue carbon and other nature-based climate solutions. It aims at exploring how coastal carbon and ecosystem services can be harnessed to fight climate change, boost conservation and...

Sea cucumbers are harvested in many countries worldwide, especially on a small-scale. For the last decade Blue Ventures has worked with local communities in order to develop sustainable aquaculture practices in Madagascar. In much of the Far East, sea cucumbers are a...

A new study looks at the tourist opportunities provided by mangroves at a global scale using TripAdvisor - This story was written by Mark Spalding and can be found here.“I have honestly never seen anything so stunningly surreal or achingly beautiful” was how one...

Building on Mikoko Pamoja, an ambitious mangrove conservation and restoration project has recently launched in Africa - An original story by UNEP.When a proven ecosystem restoration method also helps reduce poverty and build economic resilience, governments will often...

Traditionally, mud crabs where collected by women and children as a way to get a little extra money, but are now fished by tens of thousand of small-scale fishersOnce ignored by fishing communities as no more than a second-class snack, the mud crab has entered the big...

Mangrove crabs are important fishery resources throughout the Brazilian coast. However, climate change is threatening the livelihoods of people in Brazil's mangrove forests - This story was originally published in BBC.Reuters photographer Nacho Doce has...

Building on the success in Gazi Bay, partners are incorporating blue carbon in Kenya's national green house gas accounting.Mangrove forests provide a host of benefits, from supporting the livelihoods of coastal communities, protecting them from the impacts of...

An exciting and surprising link between biodiversity and blue forests explored:When we think of mangrove forests, seagrass meadows and saltmarshes, we don’t immediately think of shark habitats. But the first global review of links between large marine animals...

Recent research shows a relationship between mangrove density and marine litter - this article was originally published on Phys.orgMangrove forests on the coasts of Saudi Arabia act as litter traps, accumulating plastic debris from the marine environment, according to...

As the prospect of catastrophic effects from climate change becomes increasingly likely, a search is on for innovative ways to reduce the risks. One potentially powerful and low-cost strategy is to recognize and protect natural carbon sinks – places and processes that...

Can Blue Bonds really save the world's oceans? - An original article by The Nature ConservancyTrouble in ParadiseThere’s no longer any denying that our oceans are in a dire state. Overfishing has decimated global fish populations; climate change and ocean acidity...

Mangroves provide a wide array of ecosystem services and among them carbon sequestration is widely acknowledged. A recent Nature Geoscience article explores the Global distribution of mangrove canopy height.Mangrove forests burst with life, thriving in the muddy and...

"Article 6 of the Paris Agreement can become the international mechanism that provides the necessary incentive for host countries to fully integrate coastal blue carbon into their NDCs" (Herr et al. 2018).It still happens that the term blue carbon is...

Most efforts to address carbon emissions focus on land-based solutions such as conserving or replanting forests. However, marine life may be unlikely heroes in our fight against climate change and in avoiding the major global disasters warned of in the latest report...

Blue forests Djibouti - the Global Environment Facility has supported the restoration of mangrove forests to provide fishing communities a buffer for important ecosystems and help them adapt to climate change.

Nature is a powerful ally in tackling climate change. Yet it does not receive the attention it deserves in the debate about how to accomplish a transition towards a zero net emission society. Natural ecosystems such as forests, soils and peatlands are the most...

by Alicia Medina Villanueva & Juliane VatterWhen talking about mangroves, the funny looking trees with entangled roots living in the coasts of tropical and subtropical regions, there is so much you can say! First of all, there are around 80 described species...

Namatakula is a small village in Fiji found on a long stretch of the country’s most beautiful coastline: the Coral Coast. Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists flock from around the world to this 80 kilometre stretch of white sand and turquoise water.But the...

Cloud computing technology can speed up the assessment of Northwest Pacific seagrass beds which nurture biodiversity, purify seawater and mitigate climate change but are threatened by human activities and natural disasters, says a study by the UN Environment Regional...