Op-Ed by U.S. Ambassador Joel Ehrendreich
Climate change impacts Pacific countries’ national security as well as the lives, health, and livelihoods of its citizens. As a Pacific country, the United States is committed to partnering with the Republic of Palau and other Pacific Island Countries (PICs) in adapting and managing this threat.
Palau is fortunate to have a variety of natural resources that contribute to mitigating the harmful effects of climate change. One resource that has often been overlooked is seagrass. If you’ve walked the shores at low tide or boated and kayaked in the Rock Islands, you’ve likely seen seagrass beds. Seagrass provides important habitat for species such as meas (rabbitfish) and cheled (sea cucumber) that are an important food resource for Palauans. Seagrass is also an important food resource for uel (sea turtle) and mesekiu (dugong). Seagrass can also trap upland erosion, which protects adjacent coral reefs. Lastly, these ecosystems, like their neighboring mangroves, combat climate change by removing and storing massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This carbon is referred to as Blue Carbon.
Blue carbon (BC) is the carbon captured by the ocean and oceanic coastal ecosystems such as seagrasses, mangroves, and temperate saltmarshes. Up to 70% of carbon stored in ocean sediments is stored in these three coastal ecosystems despite only representing 0.5% of the ocean floor. The conservation and restoration of Pacific Island mangroves and seagrasses can significantly help offset and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions as well as increase the resilience of coastal areas and coastal human populations. This is a major reason why the U.S. Embassy in Koror placed Dr. Rich MacKenzie within the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Environment as a Blue Carbon Climate Fellow.
To date, Blue Carbon research in the Pacific has focused largely on mangrove forests, with little information available on seagrass ecosystems. There is a need to better understand the spatial extent and carbon stocks of seagrass ecosystems in the Pacific region for improved conservation and restoration efforts. This data is also important in developing values that can be used in national reports, such as Palau’s Third Greenhouse Gas Report or to be used to meet Palau’s Nationally Determined Contributions.
These efforts to drive climate change mitigation and adaptation are a key aspect of the United States’ partnership with the PICs under the Pacific Partnership Strategy. In April, Palau hosted the Pacific Island Blue Carbon Knowledge Exchange Network’s Seagrass Mapping and Monitoring Campaign. This campaign, the first of its kind, focused on a national assessment and inventory of seagrasses throughout Palau using a peer-to-peer learning approach lead by the US Forest Service, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Environment (MAFE) and Palau’s Land and Resource Information System Office (PALARIS). A Blue Carbon Dream Team comprised of participants from the governments, universities, and NGOs of Palau (MAFE, Ministry of Finance, PALARIS, TNC), Fiji (Ministry of Fisheries and Forestry, Conservation International, University of the South Pacific), and Samoa (Ministry of Fisheries, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Samoa Conservation Society, National University of Samoa) worked together to learn and then implement methods to map areal extent and measure carbon stocks in the seagrasses of Palau. Future campaigns will focus on mangroves. At the end of both campaigns, Palau will have mangrove and seagrass that data can be used in its national reports, to help meet its NDCs, or to participate in other carbon activities. “This data will also result in credible scientific information needed to make sound decisions about Palau’s seagrass and mangrove ecosystems’ roles in climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies”’ said Dr. Rich MacKenzie, the US Forest Service/US Embassy/MAFE Blue Carbon Climate Fellow. “There are so many workshops in the region talking about blue carbon, but very few have focused on seagrass, and none have taken our approach of building a Pacific Island Dream Team and conducting national assessments. The BC Dream Team may be the most important outcome of this campaign. A team that can continue to work together in the future to assess and inventory seagrasses and mangroves in Fiji and Samoa at later dates.” Mohammed Abdullah Bin Shorah, a remote sensing specialist with Fiji’s Ministry of Forestry and Fisheries was especially excited to be here. “Dr. MacKenzie’s approach to build a team of Pacific Islanders to work together as a group/team is the first of its kind and a challenging one to put together given the diversity of the Pacific Big Ocean States.”
For more information on the Pacific Island Blue Carbon Knowledge Exchange Network, contact U.S. Embassy Blue Carbon Climate Fellow Dr. Rich MacKenzie at richard.mackenzie@usda.gov.
Joel Ehrendreich is a career member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Department of State. He was appointed as Ambassador to the Republic of Palau in August 2023.