Blue carbon ecosystems are vital to the sequestration of carbon, creation of habitat, supporting fish stocks (with implications for food security and community sustainability) as well as natural coastal protection.
Developed coastal nations, such as Ireland, benefit from a wealth of marine data to support and underpin blue carbon. However, small coastal states like Belize, do not have these data nor infrastructure at their disposal to support adequate ecosystem management across its coastline.
This integrated mapping and monitoring project will assess the current state of blue carbon in Belize using multispectral UAV data to map the distribution of blue carbon habitats and determine the impact of fishing practices on blue carbon stocks. and .
We hope to provide less impactful alternatives; develop new methods for the assessment of blue carbon; provide data to on-going blue carbon projects and foster new collaboration between Ireland and Belize.
The methods developed herein can subsequently be implemented in blue carbon ecosystems globally.
