Publication: Belize: A Blue Carbon Readiness Assessment
Loading...
Date
2024-11-05
ISSN
Published
2024-11-05
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Blue Carbon encompasses the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems, including mangroves, salt marshes, seagrass meadows, macroalgae (such as kelp), and benthic sediments, recognized for providing vital ecosystem services that benefit humanity. These ecosystems contribute to climate change mitigation by burying three to five times more carbon per unit of area than tropical forests, while also offering adaptation benefits such as flood and storm protection, freshwater filtration, soil fertilization, and food production. Despite their economic, environmental, and social importance, Blue Carbon ecosystems (BCEs) face severe pressure from a range of degradation drivers, including agriculture, aquaculture, infrastructure, and urban development. Rapid and substantial action is needed to scale protection and restoration measures and provide the necessary funding. Studies have shown that the benefits of Blue Carbon initiatives, environmental, social, and economic, far surpass associated costs. However, bringing about these changes requires substantial resources in data, science, finance, and tailored regulatory and institutional interventions. Governments, in their role as regulators, administrators, law enforcers, landowners, and social and economic mediators, are center stage in this process. With the pressing need to tackle climate mitigation, enhance climate resilience, and transition to a more productive and resilient Blue Economy, this report examines the readiness of Belize to facilitate, catalyze, and scale up public and private investments in coastal Blue Carbon, including through the international carbon markets.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank. 2024. Belize: A Blue Carbon Readiness Assessment. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42360 License: CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Ghana: A Blue Carbon Readiness Assessment(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-11-05)Blue Carbon ecosystems, as powerful carbon sinks, can play a vital role in supporting economies, jobs, and livelihoods. For these reasons, the World Bank Group prepared the flagship report Unlocking Blue Carbon Development: Investment Readiness Framework for Governments, which aims to support governments on their pathway towards Blue Carbon readiness and to scale up public and private sector investments in coastal Blue Carbon. Ghana is a country with a high potential for accelerating Blue Carbon action and support, including through carbon finance. It already has experience in carbon finance in general, notably under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, as well as in results-based finance, notably REDD plus. This puts Ghana in the list of countries where the global Blue Carbon Readiness Framework is not a concept but a tested reality. This report, Ghana: A Blue Carbon Readiness Assessment, applies the global Blue Carbon Readiness Framework to help Ghana further tap its Blue Carbon potential by addressing technical, institutional, regulatory, and financial challenges in parallel.Publication Pakistan Blue Carbon Rapid Assessment(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2021-05)The Government of Pakistan (GoP) has initiated a preliminary analysis of Pakistan’s blue carbon exposure, relevant carbon stock trends, and the sector’s potential for climate action in the context of Pakistan’s upcoming submission of revision of its nationally determined contribution (NDC). Blue carbon refers to coastal wetlands, namely mangroves, tidal marshes, and seagrass meadows, and the multitude of ecosystem services they provide, including climate change mitigation and adaptation. Through its national process, the GoP requested rapid assessment support by the World Bank to be concluded in a few months. The objective of the rapid assessment is to support the GoP to enhance its commitments in the revised NDC through blue carbon ecosystems. In line with commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement, the GoP is committed to a strategic transition towards low carbon development while strengthening national resilience to climate change. Pakistan’s vulnerability to adverse impacts of climate change is established and well-recognized, and there is a need to build strong adaptation capacity across the country contributing to emissions reductions. In preparation for Pakistan’s second NDC submission, there is an opportunity to consider the combined adaptation and mitigation benefits of coastal ecosystems management as part of a wider initiative on agriculture, forestry, and other land uses. The report is composed of seven chapters. Chapter one discusses the background and objectives, followed by chapter two, focusing on blue carbon-related global trends. Chapter three reviews blue carbon coastal ecosystems in Pakistan and chapter four takes stock of the blue carbon-related policies. Chapter five presents the first-pass estimation of the blue carbon inventory in the country. Chapter six summarizes recommendations to this year’s NDC revision. Chapter seven provides recommendations for Pakistan to strengthen the foundations of research and outreach on blue carbon and proceed towards the blue carbon action and financing roadmap.Publication Enhancing Carbon Stocks and Reducing CO2 Emissions in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management Projects(Washington, DC, 2012-02)There is global interest in promoting mitigation and adaptation in agriculture, forest, and other land-use (AFOLU) sectors to address the twin goals of climate change and sustainable development. This guideline deals with how to enhance carbon stocks in general in all land-based projects and its specific relationship with agriculture productivity. It outlines specific steps and procedures that need to be followed by project proponents and managers of land-based projects to enhance carbon stocks synergistically with increasing crop productivity. This guideline for carbon stock enhancement or CO2 emission reduction in agriculture and natural resource management (NRM) projects covering all land-use sectors presents two approaches. The first approach is a generic one covering all the land categories and interventions aimed at promoting the economic benefits (crop, timber, and non-timber wood product production, and employment or livelihood generation) and environmental benefits (soil and water conservation, land reclamation, and biodiversity protection) of a project, synergistically optimizing carbon stock enhancement as a co-benefit. The second approach provides guidelines for project developers to maximize project C-benefits along with promoting high-value cropping systems and production practices appropriate for a given agro-ecological region as well as to meet the needs of the local stakeholders, such as farmers or landless laborers. An illustration of the two approaches is presented at the end of the executive summary. The guidelines provide methods for selection and incorporation of carbon stock enhancement modules and practices along with methods for estimation and monitoring of carbon stock changes as well as assessment of social and economic implications of carbon enhancement (C-enhancement) interventions.Publication The World Bank's GEF Program in the Middle East and North Africa Region : Global Environmental Benefits Contributing to National Development Goals(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014-01)The report focuses on the two decades of the World Bank - Global Environment Facility (GEF) partnership with the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries. This partnership has had a global environmental impact by working both at the local and national level and engaging all relevant partners and stakeholders. In addition, many GEF financed operations stand as examples of what a more holistic approach can achieve in terms of innovation and catalyzing greater investment. These operations have also delivered important social benefits such as job creation, enhanced economic and social inclusion, and strengthened governance capabilities. Presently the region s most pressing environmental challenges stem from rapid urbanization and its resulting infrastructure needs, industrial pollution, overexploitation of scarce water resources, the unsustainable management of fragile ecosystem resources and vulnerability to climate variability and climate change. Decision makers working to address these problems also face many tightly linked and urgent social issues. These issues include meeting the aspirations of a quickly growing urban youth population; giving voice to gender and women s issues; finding ways to spur job growth; and reversing the poor provision of basic services. This publication also points to opportunities for further World Bank - GEF cooperation in support of green growth.Publication Brazil Low Carbon Case Study : Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry(Washington, DC, 2011)This report presents the partial results related to land use, land-use change and the forestry sector from a larger multisectoral low-carbon study for Brazil. Since the 1992 Kyoto Accord, Brazil has been committed to reducing its carbon emissions. The overall aim of this study was to support Brazil's efforts to identify opportunities to reduce its emissions in ways that foster economic development. The primary objective was to provide the Brazilian government with the technical inputs needed to assess the potential and conditions for low-carbon development in key emitting sectors. To this end, the World Bank study adopted a programmatic approach in line with the Brazilian government's long-term development objectives. These are: to anticipate the future evolution of Brazil's emissions to establish a Reference Scenario; identify and quantify lower carbon-intensive options to mitigate emissions, as well as potential options for carbon uptake; assess the costs of these low-carbon options, identify barriers to their adoption, and explore measures to overcome them; and build a low-carbon emissions scenario that meets the same development expectations. The study also analyzed the macroeconomic effects of shifting from the Reference Scenario to the low-carbon one and the financing required. Reference-scenario results for these main areas show that deforestation remains the key driver of Brazil's future emissions through 2030. The study evaluated the mitigation and carbon uptake options, assessing all the relevant sub-sectors for each sector; determined the viability of the options investigated; and finally, constructed low-carbon scenarios for each sector to assist them lowering their greenhous gas (GHG) carbon emissions.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication World Development Report 2017(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2017-01-30)Why are carefully designed, sensible policies too often not adopted or implemented? When they are, why do they often fail to generate development outcomes such as security, growth, and equity? And why do some bad policies endure? This book addresses these fundamental questions, which are at the heart of development. Policy making and policy implementation do not occur in a vacuum. Rather, they take place in complex political and social settings, in which individuals and groups with unequal power interact within changing rules as they pursue conflicting interests. The process of these interactions is what this Report calls governance, and the space in which these interactions take place, the policy arena. The capacity of actors to commit and their willingness to cooperate and coordinate to achieve socially desirable goals are what matter for effectiveness. However, who bargains, who is excluded, and what barriers block entry to the policy arena determine the selection and implementation of policies and, consequently, their impact on development outcomes. Exclusion, capture, and clientelism are manifestations of power asymmetries that lead to failures to achieve security, growth, and equity. The distribution of power in society is partly determined by history. Yet, there is room for positive change. This Report reveals that governance can mitigate, even overcome, power asymmetries to bring about more effective policy interventions that achieve sustainable improvements in security, growth, and equity. This happens by shifting the incentives of those with power, reshaping their preferences in favor of good outcomes, and taking into account the interests of previously excluded participants. These changes can come about through bargains among elites and greater citizen engagement, as well as by international actors supporting rules that strengthen coalitions for reform.Publication Assam : Health Policy Note(Washington, DC, 2004-06)The population of Assam is 26.64 million (2001), more than 85% of which live in rural areas. The state is one of the poorer states in the country, with an estimated GDP per capita equal to Rs. 12,163, which is less than two thirds of the national average (2001-02). Growth in the 1980-90s has been one of the lowest in the country (just above 1 percent real per capita growth), although the economic situation is reported to have improved in more recent years. The economy is predominantly rural (40 percent of Net State Domestic Product is from agriculture, and 74 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture), and it is heavily dependent on the tea estate sector (800 tea gardens that produce 15% of the world tea). The non-agricultural principal activity is oil and gas extraction and transformation (there are two oil refineries in the North-Eastern part of the state, plus a third one is under construction). Population below poverty line is estimated to be 36 percent, scheduled caste 7.4 percent and scheduled tribe 12.8 percent of the total population.Publication Understanding Civil War : Evidence and Analysis, Volume 2. Europe, Central Asia, and Other Regions(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2005)The two volumes of Understanding Civil War build upon the World Bank's prior research on conflict and violence, particularly on the work of Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler, whose model of civil war onset has sparked much discussion on the relationship between conflict and development in what came to be known as the "greed" versus "grievance" debate. The authors systematically apply the Collier-Hoeffler model to 15 countries in 6 different regions of the world, using a comparative case study methodology to revise and expand upon economic models of civil war. (The countries selected are Burundi, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Kenya, Mozambique, Sudan, Algeria, Mali, Senegal, Indonesia, Lebanon, Russian Federation, Colombia, Northern Ireland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and the Caucasus.) The book concludes that the "greed" versus "grievance" debate should be abandoned for a more complex model that considers greed and grievance as inextricably fused motives for civil war.Publication Senegal : Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) : Corporate Governance Country Assessment(Washington, DC, 2006-06)This report provides an assessment of Senegal's corporate governance policy framework, enforcement, and compliance practices. It highlights recent improvements in corporate governance regulation, makes policy recommendations, and provides investors with a benchmark against which to measure corporate governance in Senegal. The report identifies several key next steps that can be carried out in Senegal and that focus on implementation, including: (i) developing program to build awareness of the importance of corporate governance and to train directors in modern corporate governance principles; (ii) drafting a code of corporate governance; (iii) addressing governance weaknesses in the state-owned enterprises. A separate report reviews the special issues for the corporate governance of state-owned enterprises in Senegal; and (iv) revising the Organization for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) uniform act for commercial companies (over the long term) to incorporate modern corporate governance principles.Publication Public-Private Partnerships and Collaboration in the Health Sector : An Overview with Case Studies from Recent European Experience(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-10)This brief is intended to provide an overview of the topic of public-private partnerships (PPPs) and public-private collaboration (PPC) in the health sector, the key types of PPPs and PPC encountered in practice, the associated benefits and risks, and good practices for ensuring success. Also included are nine recent case studies from European experience that illustrate these considerations under specific project circumstances. This overview is not intended as a detailed analysis of the theory and practice of PPPs and PPC in health, and excludes public health partnerships at supranational levels (e.g., global health partnerships or disease-specific partnerships).