(18-11-09) Maintenance and rehabilitation of the oceans will be the new key to combate climate change, according to three UN agencies report. Now, action is needed to maintain healthy marine ecosystems.

    The Rapid Response Report released by UN Organizations estimates that carbon emissions (equal to half the annual emissions of the global transport sector) are being captured and stored by marine ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes and sea grasses. A 'Blue Carbon' fund able to invest in the maintenance and rehabilitation of key marine ecosystems that should be taken into account by governments to combat climate change.

    A combination of reducing deforestation on land, together with restoring the coverage and health of these marine ecosystems could deliver up to 25 percent in the reduction of the emissions needed to avoid ‘dangerous' climate change.

    But the report, made by three United Nations agencies and leading scientists and launched during National Marine Month in South Africa, warns that far from maintaining and enhancing these natural carbon sinks, humanity is damaging and degrading them at an accelerated rate.

    It is estimated that up to seven per cent of these 'blue carbon sinks' are being lost annually, seven times the rate of loss of 50 years ago.

    "If more action is not taken to sustain these vital ecosystems, most of them may be lost within two decades," says the report Blue Carbon: the Role of Healthy Oceans in Binding Carbon launched by the UN Environment Programe (UNEP), the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO.

    Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said: "We already know that marine ecosystems areassets valued in thousands billion dollars linked to sectors such as tourism, coastal defense, fisheries and water purification services, but now they are emerging as natural allies against climate change".

    "Indeed, this report estimates that halting losses and catalyzing the recovery of marine ecosystems might contribute to offsetting up to seven per cent of current fossil fuel emissions and at a fraction of the costs of technologies to capture and store carbon at power stations," he added.

    The new report comes few days before the crucial UN climate change convention meeting in Copenhagen where governments need to Seal the Deal on a comprehensive new agreement.

    It is likely that nations will agree to pay developing economies to maintain the 'green carbon' in forests under a partnership-Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD).

    Mr Steiner added: "The links between deforestation and climate change are firmly on the political radar and there is optimism that REDD will be part of a new global climate partnership, but the role and the opportunity presented by other ecosystems are still overlooked."

    "If the world is to decisively deal with climate change, every source of emissions and every option for reducing them should be scientifically evaluated and brought to the international community's attention, which should include all the colours of carbon including now blue carbon linked with the seas and oceans."

    Carlos Duarte, one of the chief scientists of the report based at the Mediterranean Institute of Advanced Studies in Spain, said: "We know that land use change is part of the climate change challenge. Perhaps less well known is that the global loss of what we could call our "Blue carbon sinks" such as mangroves and seagrasses are actually among the key components of the increase in greenhouse concentrations from all land use changes."

    Christian Nellemann, Editor of the Rapid Response report, said: "There is an urgency to act now to maintain and enhance these carbon sink, as since the 1940s, over 30 per cent of mangroves, close to 25 per cent of salt marshes and over 30 per cent of seagrass meadows have been lost. We are losing these crucial ecosystems much faster than rainforests and we need them because in a few decades they all could be lost."

    "Fishing and aquaculture communities will be heavily impacted by climate change and have a key role to play in maintaining healthy ocean ecosystems in the face of change," said Ichiro Nomura, Assistant Director-General for Fisheries and Aquaculture at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

    "An ecosystem approach to the management of ocean and coastal areas can not only enhance their natural carbon sink capacity, but also offers a way to safeguard and strengthen food and livelihood security for fisheries-dependent communities," he added.