Comox Valley Project Watershed Blue Carbon Project

Carbon valuation of aquatic ecosystems is an important tool that can both mitigate for and adapt to climate change. Estuary ecosystems play an important role in climate change as well as watershed and community health, and are located where coastal communities thrive. Of the many important functions of estuaries are the cycling and sequestration of carbon in sediments. A staggering 55% of all living carbon is cycled in the ocean and 50- 70% of that is stored via estuary vegetation and sediments. Despite this, estuary habitats have only recently been explored as an option for carbon offsets in British Columbia. Crucial to the development of a carbon offset system that uses eelgrass and salt marsh conservation and restoration is the Comox Valley Project Watershed Society (“Project Watershed”). Project Watershed is a non-profit group on Vancouver Island that is applying a scientific approach combined with volunteer resources to collect carbon data in the eelgrass and saltmarsh habitats of the K’omoks Estuary. This data will contribute to carbon offset models that will form the framework for a province-wide Blue Carbon Protocol. To accomplish this, Project Watershed has gained the support of the Province of BC and Vancouver Island University through a Memorandum of Understanding. Together this partnership will work towards the restoration and conservation of these important ecosystems and the values they provide, while ensuring communities benefit through education opportunities and climate change adaptation