We celebrated World Mangroves Day with a Blue Carbon tour

Local community had the opportunity to see first-hand the site of what may become NSW’s first 'blue carbon' site at a recent tour near Ballina.

The event, held to coincide with World Mangrove Day, showed participants plans to transform a paddock at Duck Creek DPI Research Station into a blue carbon wetland, subject to the site being successfully registered with the Clean Energy Regulator.

DPI Fisheries Manager Patrick Dwyer led the tour. He said if registered, the site may be NSW’s first blue carbon offset site.

“Recently mangroves and other coastal wetland ecosystems (such as saltmarsh and seagrass) have been gaining increased recognition for their carbon capture and storage abilities, this is known as 'blue carbon', Mr Dwyer said.

“These blue carbon ecosystems can capture two to four times more carbon per hectare and store it faster and with less risk than most land-based forests,” he said.

“This makes blue carbon an important natural asset in combating the issue of climate change.”

“Blue carbon ecosystems also act as fish nurseries, improve water quality, protect foreshores from erosion and provide habitat for native animals.”

Mr Dwyer said his team at DPI Fisheries were planning to use the site as a demonstration site for landholders interested in converting their low-lying land to wetlands for blue carbon farming in future.

"The Australian Governments Clean Energy Regulator has developed a method for generating carbon credits for projects that reinstate tidal flows to create blue carbon ecosystems such as mangroves,” he said.

“Our project aims to demonstrate to coastal floodplain land managers how blue carbon could be incorporated into their farming system as an alternate landuse in future years," Mr Dwyer said.

“We will be showing interested parties the steps involved in undertaking and registering a blue carbon project with the Clean Energy regulator to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units.”

Program Leader Climate Change and Sustainability Officer from Tweed Shire Council, Debbie Firestone said she attended the event to find out more about local carbon offset programs.

“I’m most excited by the Duck Creek blue carbon project as exploring what sort of local carbon offset projects are possible in our region,” she said.

“That’s going to be really relevant for us as we work towards our community goal of being net zero emissions in the future,” Ms Firestone said.

DPI Fisheries will be holding more tours of the site as the project progresses.

Keep your eye on our socials (@nsw_marinestate) and in the newsletter to register for the next blue carbon tour!

Blue Carbon Demonstration on Primary Production Land is a DPI Fisheries project funded via the NSW Marine Estate Management Strategy. This project is supported under the NSW Government Blue Carbon Strategy.

Find out more about this project here: Investigating a blue carbon demonstration site on primary production land.