The mangrove forests and seagrass meadows of Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef catchments currently hold a blue carbon stock of over 111 million tonnes.

This figure could rise to 256 million tonnes CO_² equivalent by 2100, suggests the Blue Carbon Opportunities in Queensland report, a 2020 pilot study funded by the Queensland Government’s Land Restoration Fund (LRF) and led by Deakin University, The key action required to reach the higher figure is to remove tidal exclusion structures including levees and bund walls, to restore approximately 90,000ha of tidal wetlands.

Two major blue carbon habitat restoration trials are underway in Queensland to assess the potential for enhanced blue carbon sequestration in the state’s coastal wetlands, and to test new national carbon credit mechanisms for blue carbon projects. In late 2022, each project was awarded approximately $2 million of Commonwealth funding over four years, through Blue Carbon Ecosystem Restoration Grants.

On the Sunshine Coast, the council-led Blue Heart project aims to establish wetland ecosystems on the floodplain of the Maroochy River, including the restoration of former farmland into coastal wetlands. The project is targeting multiple co-benefits including flood mitigation and sea level rise adaptation, in addition to blue carbon sequestration.

Further north, in Ingham, Greening Australia is working with traditional owners to restore salt-water tidal flows to degraded cattle grazing land at Mungalla Station through the removal of bund walls. The project targets benefits for Indigenous heritage and ecotourism, improved biodiversity and water quality in addition to blue carbon sequestration.

In the longer term, the Blue Carbon Opportunities in Queensland report highlighted the potential for blue carbon habitat and carbon sequestration to expand through planned land use change as part of a managed coastal retreat from sea level rise. However, these gains could be more than offset if storm activity and sea level rise result in blue carbon ecosystem erosion. This suggests that erosion management to avoid future loss of blue carbon ecosystems should be a key focus of blue carbon projects in Queensland.

This case study was prepared by NCCARF. Please cite as: NCCARF, 2024: Exploring co-benefits of blue-carbon habitat restoration in Queensland. Case study for CoastAdapt, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Griffith University, Gold Coast.