RI, UNEP launch `Blue Carbon` global scientific assessment

    Nusa Dua, Feb 25, 2010 (ANTARA News) - Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner launched a global scientific assessment on `Blue Carbon` here on Thursday.
     "Indonesia, as a country having 92,000 km-long beach and coastal areas, second after Canada, wants to do more on ocean and marine ecosystems for future generations," Minister Fadel said at a press conference held on the sidelines of the 11th Special Session of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) Governing Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum being organized on February 24-26.
     Fadel also expressed appreciation to UNEP for presenting UNEP Award of Leadership for Promoting Ocean and Marine Conservation and Management to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the opening ceremony of the world environmental affairs ministers` meeting on Wednesday (Feb. 24).
     "Yesterday, after receiving the award, the president was very happy. As the President had said earlier, the award is not only for him but also for the people of Indonesia," he said, adding that it would encourage the nation to be more responsible in managing the marine ecosystem.
      Meanwhile, according to a joint statement issued by Fadel and Steiner, the planned joint research program was expected to strengthen the science and enhance international awareness related to adaptation and mitigation potential of marine and coastal system.
    Out of all the biological carbon or green carbon captured in the world, around 55 percent is captured by marine living organisms, not on land, hence it is called `Blue Carbon`.

Oceans, which cover 50 percent of the world`s surface, play a significant role in the global carbon cycle, not only that they represent the largest long-term sink for carbon but they also store and redistribute CO2. Some 93 percent or 40 Tt of the earth`s CO2 is stored and cycled through the oceans.

The most crucial climate-combating coastal ecosystems, cover less than 0.5 percent of the sea bed. But these areas covering features such as mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses, are responsible for capturing and storing up to some 70 percent of the carbon permanently stored in the marine realm, Achim Steiner said.

However, according to Steiner, since the 1940s, about 35 percent of the area once covered by mangroves had been lost globally, with current loss rates at around 1 to 3 percent year.

Around 30 percent of seagrasses and 25 percent of the area originally covered by salt-marshes have been globally lost, with current loss rates at about 1 to 2 percent year.

A UNEP report entitled "Blue Carbon - The Role of Healthy Oceans in Binding Carbon" said "Hence, about one-third of the area covered by blue carbon sinks has been lost already and the rest is severely threatened.

UNEP would seek partners, institutions and countries to participate in the program implementation and funding, according to Steiner.

He also hoped to create parameter on the value of marketing ocean and marine ecosystems. "So that later farmers will be engaged in carbon farming," he said.(*)

(T. F001)