Blue Carbon Ecosystems (BCE) play an important role as profound carbon reservoirs and have the potential to sequester more carbon in an area than any other ecosystem. This has sparked interest in these ecosystems and their potential for use in climate mitigation strategies and more specifically, carbon abatement. BCEs can be restored in areas which have been tidally modified through anthropogenic interventions. One such location which has experienced anthropogenic tidal regime modification is the Lower Shoalhaven River region - a region that has a broad floodplain with many floodgates separating rivers, creeks, and associated tributaries from the tidal influences of the Shoalhaven River Estuary. Recent studies have investigated the Blue Carbon potential at a national and state level, but there are limited studies on the application on a regional scale. Accordingly, using the Blue Carbon Accounting Model (BlueCAM) and its derivative, the Forward Abatement Estimator (FAE) this study aime
The Blue Carbon Accounting Model (BlueCAM) is a tool for tidal restoration projects established under the Tidal Restoration for Blue Carbon method (2022) of the Australian voluntary carbon market. The commentary of Gallagher discussed that BlueCAM did not subtract allochthonous carbon, which is carbon in wetland soils from external sources, either terrestrial or marine sources, from estimated net abatement. This approach was used because all organic carbon preserved in a restored wetland soil, irrespective of its source, is deposited because the wetland was restored, and thus all carbon preserved above the baseline is “additional.” As restoration projects develop, further characterization of different soil carbon fractions as suggested by Gallagher may improve BlueCAM. BlueCAM is transparent, conservative, and importantly is feasible for implementation, as well as being consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories