Mangrove and Freshwater Wetland Conservation Through Carbon Offsets: A Cost-Benefit Analysis for Establishing Environmental Policies

Abstract

Mexico has extensive coastal wetlands (4,243,137 ha), and one of its most important sites is the Alvarado Lagoon System, located in the Papaloapan River Basin on the Gulf of Mexico. The land cover dedicated to livestock and sugarcane has increased: by 25 % in 2005 and 50 % in 2010, with a loss of wetland vegetation and the carbon that it stores. We found that the Net Present Value of mangrove carbon offsets profit is equal to $5822.71, that of broad-leaved marshes is $7958.86, cattail marshes $5250.33, and forested wetlands $8369.41 per hectare, during a 30-year-carbonoffset contract. However, the opportunity cost from conserving wetland instead of growing sugarcane is positive according to REDD+ methodology, e.g., broad-leaved marsh conservation ranged from $6.73 to $20 USD/t CO2e, that of cattail marshes from $12.20 to $32.65 USD/t CO2e, and forested wetlands from $7.15 to $20.60 USD/t CO2e, whereas the opportunity cost between conservation and livestock was negative, it means that conservation is more profitable. The cost-benefit analysis for assessing investment projects from a governmental perspective is useful to determine the viability of conserving coastal wetlands through carbon offset credits. It also shows why in some areas it is not possible to conserve ecosystems due to the opportunity cost of changing from one economic activity (livestock and sugarcane) to carbon offsets for protecting wetlands. Furthermore, it allows for a comparison of carbon markets and assessment in terms of REDD+ and its methods for determining the social cost per ton of carbon avoided.

A Spatiotemporal Analysis of Nitrogen Pollution in a Coastal Region with Mangroves of the Southern Gulf of Mexico

“…Common strategies are required as problems originating in one country may impact the whole LME [8]. Joint efforts to preserve the Gulf of Mexico's natural resources would allow a dramatic improvement in both ecosystems' health and human development [51], as well as a great climate change mitigation effort through blue carbon storage [18,52], even with small mangroves [53].…”

Almacenes y flujos de carbono en humedales de agua dulce en México

“…En un esfuerzo por mapear los servicios ambientales de los humedales de agua dulce en Veracruz, se han hecho mapas del carbono en algunos humedales de agua dulce (Moreno-Casasola, Monroy-Ibarra, Hernández, Campos y Vázquez-González, 2016). También se ha hecho un esfuerzo aún mayor por resaltar el valor económico de los almacenes de carbono en los suelos de los humedales de agua dulce y manglares del sistema lagunar de Alvarado, Veracruz, para poder traducirlo al lenguaje de los tomadores de decisión y así coadyuvar a la conservación de los servicios ambientales que prestan dichos ecosistemas (Vázquez-González et al, 2017). tres, los humedales de agua dulce pueden almacenar hasta seis veces más carbono.…”

Economic appraisal of ecosystem services and restoration scenarios in a tropical coastal Ramsar wetland in India

“…The cost-benefit ratio and internal rate of return for restoring wetlands, especially coastal wetlands, can be low in comparison to other ecosystems types, however, restoration is often economically viable (de Groot et al, 2013;Cao et al, 2018). Its viability largely depends on the spatial extension of the wetland (Yang et al, 2016), the time period over which costs and benefits are assessed (Vázquez-González et al, 2017), the rate of discounting applied (de Groot et al, 2013;Turpie et al, 2016) and the level of restoration considered in the analysis (Pattison-Williams et al, 2018). In some wetland restoration projects, the costs outweigh the benefits (Pattison et al, 2011) while in others, the benefits can far outweigh the costs (Birol et al, 2006).…”