Coasts are regions of great importance for human well-being and are of national economic importance for coastal states. Coastal ecosystems provide numerous ecosystem services supporting a significant proportion of the world’s population, particularly in developing countries, but are some of the most vulnerable areas to climate change.

Despite their importance, coastal zones are becoming increasingly degraded, undermining development and climate resilience. The destruction of mangroves, for example, is negatively affecting subsistence and commercial fisheries, aquaculture and disaster risk reduction efforts, while simultaneously contributing to global deforestation emissions at a rate which is vastly disproportionate to mangrove coverage.

Carbon markets, social carbon, biodiversity premiums and other payments for ecosystem services (PES) schemes have created new opportunities for achieving triple wins – that is, climate change adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development. However, there remains scant evidence of the fiscal and regulatory mechanisms required to deliver the incentives and governance conditions necessary for leveraging coastal zone CCD through these emerging PES markets.

In light of this, the iCoast project has:

• Conducted evidentiary analysis in Sri Lanka and Kenya of the social, cultural, political, economic and environmental barriers to CCD implementation at the coastal zone
• Developed cost-curves of applying CCD to the coastal zone using newly tested benefit transfer methodologies
• Mapped the fiscal and regulatory mechanisms necessary to achieve CCD in the coastal zone of Kenya and Sri Lanka under different market scenarios
• Mapped the value of coastal landscapes and their potential to support CCD in the coastal zone, highlighting priority areas for attention in the short, medium and long-term national strategies

Find out more about iCoast on the LTS and EAFAS websites

Download the two page case study here

Lead: Edinburgh Napier University, Prof. Mark Huxham

Partners: Prof. Loku Jayatissa. Ruhuna University, Sri Lanka; Dr. James Kairo, Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kenya; Lesley King, LTS International, UK; Dr. Fiona Nunan, Birmingham University, UK.

CDKN funding: £375,000