Blue carbon ecosystems — mangroves, seagrass beds, and salt marshes — store vast amounts of carbon while providing critical habitat for wildlife. Their restoration addresses climate change and wildlife welfare simultaneously.
Blue carbon restoration creates welfare benefits at multiple scales simultaneously. Mangrove forests shelter animals from storms and provide nursery habitat where juvenile fish are protected from predators while developing. Salt marshes support breeding shorebirds and migratory stopovers. Seagrass beds feed mega-herbivores and shelter small animals. Restoring these ecosystems also addresses the climate change driving bleaching, warming, and storm intensification that harms wildlife across the globe. The welfare case for blue carbon conservation is compelling: protecting and restoring these habitats produces measurable wildlife welfare improvements while addressing the root cause of the global climate welfare crisis.