T

he vast potential of marine resources that are able to absorb carbon could make Indonesia a leader in the global effort to use “blue carbon” in reducing emissions, according to the government’s climate change experts.

Challenges remain, however, in optimally harnessing these resources — notably mangrove and seagrass — to support climate change mitigation efforts, the experts said at the 2017 World Blue Carbon Conference in Jakarta.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s special envoy on climate change, Rachmat Witoelar, said Indonesia had to solve at least three problems on blue carbon protection and restoration “together with the world.”

“First, we need to develop the science and push forward to reach consensus regarding the methodology and measurement of reducing carbon emissions that are accurate and accountable,” Rachmat said in his keynote speech.

While global experts have agreed on the estimate of carbon absorption in a terrestrial landscape, they could not reach the same consensus when measuring the potential of blue carbon, Rachmat said.

“All over the world, [experts] don’t exactly know [the potential of blue carbon]; this is still a somewhat controversial issue,” Rachmat said.

Second, Indonesia needed to “mainstream the idea of mitigation action” by harnessing blue carbon “into policy and implementation, while the third challenge was increasing conservation and restoration efforts on marine and coastal ecosystems.”

Policies and finance mechanisms being developed for climate change mitigation might offer an additional route for effective coastal management, Rachmat said, and blue carbon now offers the possibility to harness the money by combining “best-practices in coastal management with climate change mitigation goals.”

While a bold commitment to harnessing blue carbon has yet to appear at the national level, conservation efforts in Indonesia’s vast regions using local wisdom have at least provided the protection needed to ensure blue carbon’s role in climate change mitigation.

Kartini Sjahrir, senior adviser for maritime climate change at the Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister, who was also present at the conference, pointed to the Sasi tradition in the Kei Islands in Maluku as an example on how local wisdom plays a pivotal role in conserving coastal and marine areas.

“Sasi is a belief system that prohibits someone from cultivating an area on a temporary basis,” said Kartini, who is also an experienced anthropologist.

Blue carbon, Rachmat said, was one of several environmental services provided by coastal and marine ecosystems, along with coastal protection from storms and fish nurseries, among others.

“These ecosystems sequester and store large quantities of blue carbon in both the plants and the sediment below. For example, more than 95 percent of the carbon in seagrass ecosystems is stored in the soil,” Rachmat explained.

The conservation of sea ecosystems was important to ensure that blue carbon could be used in climate change mitigation efforts, he further argued.

“When protected or restored, blue carbon ecosystems sequester and store carbon. The coastal ecosystems of mangroves, seagrass and tidal marshes mitigate climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,” said Rachmat.

On the other hand, degraded or destroyed blue carbon ecosystems could “emit the carbon they have stored for centuries” into the atmosphere and oceans, and “become source of greenhouse gases emissions.”

“Experts estimate that [emissions from] degraded coastal ecosystems are equivalent to 19 percent of emissions from tropical deforestation, globally,” Rachmat said.

The situation in Indonesia is not very promising, according to marine data from the Indonesian Sciences Institute (LIPI).

A LIPI study published in June found most of the shallow seas in Indonesia has seagrass meadows that are in bad condition. In total, seagrass meadows cover a sea area of around 150,000 hectares.

The study monitored the condition of seagrass meadows in 423 locations across the country, mostly in Indonesia’s eastern part, concluding that only 5 percent had seagrass meadows in excellent condition.

Among various causes are massive reclamation, construction in coastal zones, global warming and destructive fishing.