Nature-based solutions and restoration of blue carbon ecosystems

The challenge

Salt marshes and seagrass meadows along the Basque coast are under strong anthropogenic pressure, reducing their capacity to store carbon and protect coastlines from climate change. Understanding their condition is essential to quantify how much carbon they can sequester and to design policies and strategies that help conserve and restore them, ensuring healthier coastal environments.

The solution

• Assessment of the condition of salt marshes and marine phanerogams (seagrasses).
• Identification of restoration potential to enhance carbon sequestration.

The results

• Blue carbon ecosystems could store up to 33 gigatonnes of carbon.
• Restoration could enable the fixation of an additional 840 Mt of CO₂ by 2030.