The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is thrilled to announce a significant milestone in the fight against climate change with the registration of South Australia's first blue carbon project with the Australian Government's Clean Energy Regulator.
The project, located near Webb Beach which adjoins the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary National Park - Winaityinaityi Pangkara, is the second blue carbon project to be registered in Australia.
The project received $2.9 million in funding from the Australian Government under the Blue Carbon Conservation, Restoration and Accounting Program to help restore and enhance blue carbon ecosystems across a 12,000 ha area, which includes parts of the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary.
TNC's Blue Carbon Lead, Stella Kondylas, said the project is leading the way in demonstrating how blue carbon can deliver multiple benefits to coastal communities.
"The project aims to restore natural tidal flows into a stranded coastal wetland to enhance the ecological health and extent of local ecosystems," Ms Kondylas said. "The area also provides critically important habitat for many Australian and migratory shorebirds."
Around 15,000 shorebirds gather here for up to six months each year before migrating to breeding grounds in China, Siberia, and elsewhere in East Asia. Expanding the habitat available to these birds will strengthen global conservation efforts along one of the world's three great migratory bird flight paths.
The concept of blue carbon is gaining traction worldwide as an important long-term natural climate solution.
Healthy coastal ecosystems like mangroves, seagrasses, and saltmarshes can provide an incredible array of services to both people and nature. They provide nursery habitat for fish and crabs, feeding areas for shorebirds, help improve water quality and protect communities and homes from storm surge events and flooding. They can also absorb and store carbon at concentrations up to four times higher than terrestrial forests and retain the carbon in sediment for millennia.
"The Australian Government's Clean Energy Regulator's formal registration of the project underscores its importance and potential as a carbon sink, and will serve as an important demonstration site," Ms Kondylas said.
"This project is a testament to the power of collaboration. Over the past 18 months, TNC has worked with coastal ecologists and partners, including Kaurna as the Traditional Owners, private landholders, community members, the South Australian Department for Environment and Water, Adelaide Plains Council, Flinders University, The University of Adelaide, Birds SA, BirdLife Australia, the Northern and Yorke Landscape Board, and Green Adelaide," Ms Kondylas said.
South Australian Minister for Climate, Environment and Water, Susan Close, said she was delighted that the state's first blue carbon project had been formally registered with the Clean Energy Regulator.
"Restoring mangroves and saltmarshes along South Australia's magnificent coastline will not only help to address the dual crisis of climate change and biodiversity loss but will also contribute to the prevention of coastal erosion and reduce some of the impacts of rising sea levels," Minister Close said.
"Restoring and protecting blue carbon ecosystems is vital in the fight against climate change."
The project received initial funding from Smartgroup's Carbon Offset Program, which invests in biodiversity and restoration projects. Salary packaging and novated leasing provider was one of the first Australian companies to invest in a blue carbon project.
Group Executive for Smartgroup Sophie MacIntosh said the Blue Carbon project is innovative and impactful.
"It's something Smartgroup is very proud to be a part of," Ms MacIntosh said.
