Background
RAE is a national non-profit organization consisting of 10 coastal conservation organizations that work to protect and restore the vital habitats of America’s estuaries. Members include the American Littoral Society, Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, EarthCorps, Galveston Bay Foundation, North Carolina Coastal Federation, Save The Bay – San Francisco, Save The Bay – Narragansett Bay, Save the Sound, and Tampa Bay Watch. Estuaries provide vital habitats for a diversity of wildlife as well as provide ecosystem services that humans depend on (e.g., protecting water quality, providing food, enhancing our quality of life, acting as a flooding and sea level rise buffer). In addition, wetlands have the ability to sequester carbon by supporting standing biomass of plant material and continuously burying carbon within soils. Restoring and/or avoiding loss of tidal wetlands and coastal habitats has the potential to enhance ecosystem health, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and facilitate adaptation to climate change.
In 2010, RAE convened a National Blue Ribbon Panel to establish an action plan for the creation of a greenhouse gas offset protocol for coastal tidal wetlands. The panel consisted of national experts in wetlands science, carbon markets, and public policy. In April 2010, RAE and the project partners hosted a two-day workshop for the panel followed by a public stakeholder workshop. Project partners included Philip Williams & Associates, Ltd. (now ESA); California Coastal Conservancy and Ocean Protection Council; California Ocean Science Trust; Center for Collaborative Policy; CH2M; Climate Action Reserve; Conservation Capital, LLC; Environmental Defense Fund; The Nature Conservancy; Louisiana Office of Coastal Protection and Restoration; The San Francisco Foundation; USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service; and U.S. Geological Survey. In August 2010, RAE released the Action Plan to Guide Protocol Development for tidal wetlands greenhouse gas offsets.
Implementation
The Action Plan outlines clear steps regarding the science and policies necessary to advance greenhouse gas offset protocol development, including the questions that still need to be answered, strategies for answering those questions, the formation of working groups to address major issues, and the implementation of regional case studies to demonstrate reduction methods. Four major groups were identified including:
- Eligible Project Activities: four project activities that could be included in a protocol (e.g., avoided wetlands loss, wetlands restoration, wetlands management, and wetlands creation).
- Eligibility: documenting clear eligibility guidelines for tidal wetlands projects (e.g., regulations governing tidal wetlands projects, public lands and funding, environmental impacts and benefits).
- Permanence: examining issues related to ensuring the permanence of greenhouse gas reductions and removals.
- Quantification: advancing research and analysis related to greenhouse gas quantification and standardization.
In addition, the panel recommended implementing three different case studies: the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (a managed, freshwater tidal marsh); the Mississippi Delta (a large-scale restoration project); and a coastal salt marsh not determined in the plan (a restoration, creation, or managed project). It is unclear if these case studies were implemented.
Citation
Kershner, J. (2021). Restore America’s Estuaries Climate Action Plan. [Case study on a project of the Restore America’s Estuaries organization]. Product of EcoAdapt’s State of Adaptation Program. Retrieved from CAKE: https://www.cakex.org/case-studies/restore-america’s-estuaries-climate-action-plan (Last updated October 2021)
This case study was originally published on the EcoAdapt Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange.
