Maps of blue carbon priority areas now available

Maps showing the areas in NSW with the greatest blue carbon potential are now available to the public on the NSW SEED portal.

Blue carbon is the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrasses.

Scientific assessments show that blue carbon ecosystems can sequester (or store) two to four times more carbon per hectare than land-based forests and store it 30-50 times faster.

Not surprisingly, these coastal ecosystems are now recognised for their role in mitigating climate change.

The blue carbon data comes from a DPI Fisheries and Wollongong University collaborative study that assessed and mapped a blue carbon storage potential of areas across coastal NSW and identified the areas most suitable for re-establishing coastal wetlands.

If you're interested in finding the blue carbon potential of low-lying land in your area, check out the  
NSW Blue Carbon datasets via the SEED Dataset Catalogue.

The SEED portal is the NSW Government’s central resource for Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data.  

The Blue Carbon study was partially funded under the NSW Marine Estate Management Strategy.