Planning for the future of blue carbon ecosystems across the Western Port region

Blue Carbon Ecosystems have an important role to play in humanity’s fight against climate change and the extinction crisis.

Western Port’s Blue Carbon Ecosystems are threatened by a number of linked and separate processes.  Grazing and trampling by livestock, for example, is a particular threat to saltmarshes only.  Similarly, siltation from stormwater land runoff impacts seagrass growth but not mangroves or saltmarshes.  Conversely, climate change and associated sea level rise will impact all three ecosystems. Management responsibility for these ecosystems ranges from the State Government to private landholders with industry and recreational users also being important stakeholders. 

The Victorian Government’s Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action funded the Western Port Biosphere Foundation to deliver the “Blue Carbon Planning Project” from 2023 – 2025.  This project built on the Foundation’s previous work with the Blue Carbon Lab in 2022, which generated the report “Blue carbon opportunities at a local scale within Western Port Bay and eastern Port Phillip Bay” which included a Blue Carbon Roadmap.  The planning project assessed threats to Blue Carbon Ecosystems across Western Port’s four local government areas and French Island, and implemented on-ground work at 19 sites to mitigate those threats.  Physical interventions included revegetation, weed control and the planting of mangrove seedlings using novel methods.  A bay-wide study of intertidal and sub-tidal seagrass beds was also started.  Additionally, the Biosphere Foundation commissioned a study into coastal erosion around Lang Lang in Cardinia Shire.  

For more information, please visit the Blue Carbon StoryMap, which summarises the key findings.

For information about Western Port’s mangroves click on the YouTube link to watch the Blue Carbon Lab explain more.

Future Action:

Recommendations to further protect/extend Western Port’s Blue Carbon Ecosystems are clustered around the same four topic areas as the original roadmap, namely Science, Community, Governance and Finance.  The continuation of on-ground works is recommended with special attention drawn to the potential to scale-up seagrass restoration.  First Nations peoples should continue to be involved at every stage and more in-depth engagement with coastal farmers should be encouraged and facilitated.  All stakeholders would benefit from Western Port having a marine spatial plan or a strategic framework.  Achieving this is prioritised, as is support for DEECA’s proposed “Blue Carbon Statement” and support for continued implementation of the “Marine and Coastal Strategy 2022”.  The potential to use Federally supported environmental markets to finance blue carbon restoration should be explored.  Finally, it is recommended that pre-feasibility studies on facilitated inundation/tidal reinstatement and the establishment of “living breakwaters” are commissioned.  These are the two best options identified to mitigate the harm caused by the ongoing erosion of the Lang Lang coast. Moreover, trialling these strategies could help determine how useful they might be to buffer against the worst effects of sea level rise around the coastline in the future, protecting coastal communities and improving blue carbon habitat and capacity at the same time. 

To see the full list of recommendations and our progress towards implementing them click here

Recommendations for Action