To inform the development of the Indigenous Blue Carbon and Environmental Markets guide, the ICIN team coordinated a workshop for Indigenous groups in the region about current and future blue carbon and environmental market opportunities in Cairns/Gimuy. 

Blue carbon is the term used to describe the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, such as mangroves, salt marshes, supratidal forests and seagrass meadows. These ecosystems capture and store carbon and they can play an important role in fighting climate change. Blue carbon is also used to describe carbon projects in wetlands. 

Throughout the workshop we asked participants about their understanding of blue carbon, their experiences with blue carbon, potential opportunities for projects in their region and any barriers them, or their community, may be facing from participating in blue carbon projects.

We ran through a number of case studies demonstrating blue carbon in action which included the Mungalla Project, being run by Nywaigi Traditional Owners, the Great Barrier Reef Foundation and Greening Australia in northern Queensland as part of the only blue carbon method currently available under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme called the 'Tidal Restoration of Blue Carbon Ecosystems' method. 

We were lucky enough to have Jacob Cassady, Nywaigi Traditional Custodian and Director of Mungalla Aboriginal Business Corporation, dial into the session, sharing with us the successes and challenges of their blue carbon project, and showing participants his beautiful Country. Thanks for your time Jacob. 

Brian Warner (pictured below, right), from Kabi Kabi Aboriginal Corporation, shared information about a blue carbon project called Blue Heart which is protecting and managing the most critical areas of the Maroochy floodplain. 

Further presentations were delivered by Jack Hill, PhD student, School of the Environment, University of Queensland, who ran through the development process of the proponent led method in development around managing introduced hooved animals. This method falls under blue carbon as it will be applicable to wetlands once it is available, it is expected that several of ICIN's members may be able to apply this method to their country. Information on this method development process can be found here. 

Participants also heard from Dr Justin Perry, Research Manager, NAILSMA, who described the damage caused by introduced hooved animals (pigs, buffalo and feral cattle) on wetlands, ran through steps to registering a carbon project under the ungulate method and how to detect change in feral animal damage year on year. 

Feedback from this workshop is also being used to inform communication products currently in development to support understanding of blue carbon markets, including an animation video. An in-depth explanation of blue carbon and the opportunities for Indigenous people in Australia can be found on our website here.

Thank you to NAILSMA, The Great Barrier Reef Foundation, Charles Darwin University and the National Environmental Science Program for supporting this work.