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T1 Protecting Seagrass through Payments for Ecosystem Services: A Community Guide
T2 Protéger les Herbiers Marins en se Servant des Paiements Pour Services Ecosystémiques: Guide Communautaire
T2 La Protección de las Praderas Marinas Mediante el Pago por los Servicios de los Ecosistemas
A1 United Nations Environment Programme, 
A2 Shilland, Robyn
A2 Wanjiru, Anne
A2 Mohamed, Ahmed
A2 Grimsditch, Gabriel
A2 Huxham, Mark
K1 ecosystem
K1 climate change
K1 marine resources conservation
K1 seagrass
K1 community development
K1 community participation
K1 payments for ecosystem service
YR 2020
FD 2020-05
LK https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/32277
UL https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/32277
NO This community guide presents a structured overview of how community-based conservation can be applied to protect seagrass ecosystems through Payments for Ecosystem Services mechanisms. It explains the ecological importance of seagrass meadows, emphasizing their roles in supporting fisheries, reducing coastal erosion, and storing significant amounts of carbon in sediments, while also documenting the scale and drivers of global seagrass loss. The document situates seagrass conservation within the context of climate change and highlights gaps in existing legal and institutional protection. It outlines the rationale for community-led management, detailing governance, financial planning, scientific capacity, community engagement, benefit sharing, and legal rights as core requirements. A substantial portion is dedicated to explaining Payments for Ecosystem Services, with particular attention to carbon-based approaches, including principles such as permanence, leakage, and additionality. The guide describes project design, monitoring, certification, reporting, and market participation, supported by a case study from coastal Kenya. Overall, it functions as a global, non-prescriptive reference intended to guide communities and project developers in designing viable, accountable seagrass conservation initiatives linked to measurable ecosystem service outcomes.
DS UN Environment Document Repository
RD Sep 20, 2026