Story by Mongabay
BONTHE, Sierra Leone — On the island of Sherbro in Sierra Leone, as in much of the country, there’s limited access to vital services needed to make ends meet.
“Here our people only rely on fishing and a few on agriculture and have nothing else to occupy our children, our youths,” Nenneh Sumaila, the chief of Gbomgboma, a village of about 300 people on the island, told Mongabay. “There are no good roads, no proper health facilities, there’s poor housing, electricity is a dream and the standard of living is poor.”
Compared to terrestrial carbon projects, only a small number of blue carbon projects have gotten underway worldwide. The first one, Mikoko Pamoja, launched in Kenya in 2010. That project is conducted under a standard set by Plan Vivo, a U.K.-based NGO. Organizations such as Plan Vivo that certify projects for the voluntary carbon market determine methodologies for setting emissions reduction targets, as well as overseeing audit reports and setting other rules. Another blue carbon project, much larger in scale, launched in Colombia’s Cispatà Bay in 2021, under a standard set by Verra, a U.S.-based NGO, which is also being used in the Sherbro project.
The Sherbro project has four focus areas, and the October agreement was for the first area, which covers about 13,000 hectares (32,100 acres) and involves 124 communities, according to John Stelzer, a partner with the company who spoke to Mongabay. West Africa Blue expects to sign agreements with the communities in the three other areas, including some not on Sherbro Island but on the nearby mainland, in 2026, Stelzer said. Once those areas are included, the project will cover roughly 94,000 hectares (232,300 acres) and has the potential to reduce or remove more than 3 million metric tons of CO equivalent over its life, he said.
Source: Huge ‘blue carbon’ offsetting project takes root in the mangroves of Sierra Leone