New evidence on the climate services of restored wetlands unveiled during the first public session of the Community of Practice for Wetland Restoration

Image: @ Madeira Scauri | LifeWatch ERIC. Prof. Antonio Camacho (at University of Valencia) and Santiago Suarez (MedWet)

Last Thursday, 6 November, as part of the Autumn Schools organised by the Horizon Europe RESTORE4Cs project in Malaga, the new Community of Practice of Wetland Restoration presented the first results of a comparative study to assess the effects of ecological restoration on the GHG abatement capacity of six coastal wetlands.

Over fifty representatives of the research, policymaking, wetland management and nature conservation sectors participated in this workshop, which marked the first public activity of the community of practice.

Prof. Antonio Camacho (University of Valencia, Limnology Group, Cavanilles Institute for Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology), scientific lead of the study, offered a presentation of the methodology applied to measure carbon and GHG fluxes in six coastal wetlands across Europe (Camargue in France, Marjal dels Moros in Spain, Ria de Aveiro in Portugal, Danube Delta in Romania, South-West Dutch Delta in the Netherlands and Curonian Lagoon in Lithuania).

By jointly considering the values of carbon sequestration and GHG mitigation in various types of coastal wetlands (freshwater marshes and ponds, brackish marshes, intertidal salt marshes and seagrass beds, together with hydro/littoral mud and sand beds), the assessment shows – for most wetlands – a significant reduction in the Global Warming Potential due to GHG exchanges after restoration. In the words of A. Camacho, these results suggest a link between the recovery of wetlands’ natural condition after restoration and an improvement in their capacity to mitigate climate change, in line with the principles expressed by the Paris Agreement, the European Climate Law and the Nature Restoration Law.

Coastal wetlands are indeed important natural carbon stores, given their capacity to sequester carbon efficiently while emitting relatively less methane – a Greenhouse Gas (GHG) with much higher warming potential than CO2 in the medium term.¹

The role of the Community of Practice will be to continue gathering comparable evidence from other restoration projects in various types of wetlands (peatlands, floodplains, etc) to expand the knowledge base of wetlands climate services.

An open discussion round engaged participants in a debate around the opportunities and constraints for leveraging finance to restore wetlands through the sale of carbon credits on the voluntary carbon market, as well as biodiversity credits. Within the European Union, the high cost of restoration alongside the existing certification requirements to ensure long-term carbon storage were raised as some of the key challenges for the success of carbon farming mechanisms.

This Workshop, which was part of the Autumn Schools for scientists and policy-makers co-organised by LifeWatch ERIC, ETC-UMA and MedWet, benefited from the remote participation of representatives of the government of Spain (national emissions inventory), subnational governments in Italy and Ramsar focal points of Slovenia and Algeria, among others.

In the afternoon, onsite participants enjoyed a hands-on demonstration of carbon sampling activities at the Guadalhorce Wetlands in Malaga, offered by the team of the University of Malaga (Paula Warren from the Marine Ecology and Limnology Research Group with support from Mar Otero ETC-UMA), who have also analysed the effect of restoration on the carbon sequestration rates of saltmarshes of Doñana.

Learn more about the Community of Practice and the Horizon RESTORE4Cs project here:

Stemming from Resolution XIV.17 of the Convention on Wetlands, the Community of Practice for Wetland Restoration seeks to build comparative evidence on the climate services of diverse types of wetlands by involving a vast array of knowledge-holders – from managers and decision-makers, to scientists and private actors, as well as civil society organisations, local stakeholders and restoration champions.

https://www.wetlandbasedsolutions.org/wetlands-carbon-sequestration-ghg/

RESTORE4Cs is a Horizon Europe project that aims to evaluate the effects of restoration actions on wetlands’ ability to mitigate climate change and deliver a range of ecosystem services, using an integrative socio-ecological systems approach. More information is available at:
https://www.restore4cs.eu/

¹ Citation: Otero, M., Camacho, A., Abdul Malak, D., Kampa, E., Scheid, A., Elkina, E., 2024. How can coastal wetlands help achieve EU climate goals? Policy Brief. Restore4Cs project