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COASTAL WETLAND RESTORATION

Restoring wetlands of our past, for our future

Coastal wetland ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrasses and tidal marshes, store carbon and provide co-benefits, such as coastal protection and fisheries enhancement. Unfortunately, they are one of the most threatened ecosystems on earth and continue to face threats from urban and agricultural development, coastal squeeze, sea-level rise, pollution, and inappropriate recreation. 

The restoration of lost and degraded coastal wetland ecosystems is a natural climate solution, resulting in enhanced carbon sequestration and avoided emissions, while delivering important ecological and societal co-benefits.  

Our Coastal Wetland Restoration Program comprises of three pillars: Plan, Action and Monitor. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we translate decades of innovative research into on-ground restoration action using new approaches and proven low-cost methods to support ecosystem recovery. We use best-practice standards to implement, monitor and evaluate the outcomes of the restoration actions.  

The outcomes from our Coastal Wetland Restoration Program work to improve foundational knowledge of restoration impact on plant and soil function and recovery, and to support the development of blue carbon markets, the valuation of created natural capital, and the resilience to climate change of local communities through building adaptive capacity. 

Restoration facts

Disappearing fast

Global wetlands
have
declined
by 64
to 71%
since
1900.

Protection

Protecting existing
blue carbon
ecosystems
could avoid
emissions of
304 Tg CO2e
per year.

Restoration

Large-scale restoration of blue carbon ecosystems could remove an extra ~3% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions.

Carbon markets

In early 2022,
Australia released
its first blue
carbon method
under the
Emissions
Reduction Fund.

UN Decade

The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean. 

Our Coastal Restoration Program 

Plan

We undertake pre-restoration planning, including feasibility assessments for restoration activities and carbon markets, cost-benefit analysis, restoration action plans, stakeholder engagement and spatial planning to optimise environmental, economic and social outcomes of coastal restoration projects.

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Action

We translate decades of innovative research into on-ground restoration action using new approaches and proven low-cost methods to support ecosystem recovery. We implement and manage restoration activities responsibly, effectively and efficiently to support the re-establishment of the natural functions of coastal wetlands.

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Monitor

We evaluate the short- and long-term impacts of the restoration activities on a range of ecological attributes (structural diversity, ecosystem function, species composition, physical condition, absence of threats and external exchanges) to ensure project goals and objectives are being achieved. 

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Plan

Cost Benefit Analysis of coastal wetland restoration

This project will undertake a cost-benefit analysis of coastal wetland restoration to develop the business case for upscaling coastal wetland restoration, which will look at ‘blue carbon’ credits as well as achieving other important co-benefits.







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Mapping the benefits and costs of management actions for coastal wetlands in Victoria

This project used the UN System of Environmental Economic Accounting Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA EA) to assess the extent, condition and physical and monetary services provided by existing mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrasses across Victoria, and how these could be improved through different management options (e.g., fencing, levee removal, managed removal).

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Enabling Blue Carbon Markets

This project aims to understand the amenability of landholders to change land use practices within their lands, and to develop a pre-feasibility assessment of potential restoration sites at local scale that combines on-ground restoration work and the generation of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). 





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Upscaling low-cost restoration activities

This project will work towards increasing restoration efforts state-wide by determining scale of opportunity for fencing, supporting practitioners with specialist resources, and reviewing financial impetus mechanisms to encourage long term protection.





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Action

The Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration Program

The #VicWetlandRehab is a multidisciplinary program– comprising Academia, Government, Industry, and Traditional Owners – guiding and undertaking the restoration of critical wetland habitat on both private and public land, helping to facilitate the recovery of some of Victoria’s most endangered birds, frogs and other threatened plants and animals. 

#VicWetlandRehab

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Regenerating Our Coasts

Regenerating Our Coasts is a multidisciplinary program using biodegradable structures to promote coastal regeneration in areas that are struggling to revegetate naturally.  

#ReGenOurCoasts 






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Monitor

Gippsland’s Wetland Restoration Citizen Science Program

Empowering the Gippsland community on climate change, by transforming them into citizen scientists that contribute to local climate actions, while collecting data to inform wetland management in Victoria. 




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Saltmarsh restoration and monitoring utilising citizen scientists

This project restored marginal farmland back to coastal wetlands using low-cost exclusion fencing in Swan Bay, Victoria. Blue Carbon Lab researchers undertook a pilot study where citizen scientists, in combination with remote sensing methods, helped to monitor the restoration outcomes using vegetation as an indicator.  

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Exploring belowground recovery in response to 25 years of restoration

Using a space-for-time approach that comprises saltmarsh ecosystems established for 0-60 years, this project is monitoring the belowground responses to restoration. Our techniques include root growth and decay, soil carbon stocks and physical soil properties.


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Latest news 

Follow #coastalrestoration on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram for on-going project updates. 

  • Exploring the use of natural biopolymers from industrial waste to restore coastal wetlands

    #ReGenOurCoasts,Labwork,News / August 30, 2024

  • #RegenOurCoasts: Two years of community efforts and exciting findings

    Citizen Science,#ReGenOurCoasts,Fieldwork,News / May 31, 2024

  • Seeds of change: Uniting communities for coastal restoration at the Boollam Boollam Willum Festival

    #ReGenOurCoasts,Citizen Science,Fieldwork / April 18, 2024

  • Corinella community rises to the challenge of Regenerating Our Coasts

    #ReGenOurCoasts,Citizen Science / November 2, 2023

  • Monitoring restoration responses for #ReGenOurCoasts

    Citizen Science,#ReGenOurCoasts / June 28, 2023

  • Remove the Hooves: How fencing off a paddock to exclude sheep in the Gippsland Lakes will lead to blue carbon gains

    News,Fieldwork,VicWetlandRehab / June 20, 2023

  • Monitoring mangroves to measure success: highlights from a #ReGenOurCoasts citizen science day

    Citizen Science,#ReGenOurCoasts / March 29, 2023

  • Growing Outreach and Engagement to #ReGenOurCoasts

    Citizen Science,#ReGenOurCoasts / February 28, 2023

  • BCL hosts Lunch & Learn session to involve Beach Energy employees in conversations about coastal wetland restoration

    News,#ReGenOurCoasts / September 9, 2022

  • Invasive Manoeuvres: Citizen scientists assist with ongoing monitoring of Point Lillias, a threatened coastal grassland ecosystem with significant cultural heritage

    Citizen Science,VicWetlandRehab / July 28, 2022

  • Premier’s Sustainability Awards Finalist

    News,VicWetlandRehab / October 25, 2021

  • Finalist 2021 SERA Award for Ecological Restoration Excellence

    News,VicWetlandRehab / September 2, 2021

  • BCL Partners with the Intrepid Foundation

    Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / August 30, 2021

  • New Grant: Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation Innovation Grant

    Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / August 30, 2021

  • New Grant: PPBF 2021- Protecting cultural heritage and restoring a threatened ecosystem at Point Lillias

    Citizen Science,Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / August 8, 2021

  • New Grant: PPBF 2021- Restoration of an urban coastal wetland (Truganina Wetland) informed through citizen science research

    Citizen Science,Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / August 1, 2021

  • New Grant: PPBF 2021- Saltmarsh restoration and monitoring utilising citizen scientists in Swan Bay

    Citizen Science,Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / July 14, 2021

  • New Grant: Helen Macpherson Smith Trust

    Grant,News,VicWetlandRehab / July 9, 2021

  • Celebrating NAIDOC Week 2021

    News,VicWetlandRehab / July 6, 2021

  • Remembering David Rhodes

    Fieldwork,VicWetlandRehab / January 22, 2021

  • Two ways of knowing natural temperate grasslands of the Victorian Volcanic Plain

    Fieldwork,News,VicWetlandRehab / January 21, 2021

  • Funding from the Australian Ethical Foundation to further coastal wetland research

    News,VicWetlandRehab / July 10, 2020

  • Traditional Owners vegetation workshop

    Fieldwork,VicWetlandRehab / June 26, 2020

  • Autumn 2020 saltmarsh sampling in Western Port

    Fieldwork,VicWetlandRehab / June 23, 2020

  • Additional protection for Western Port’s saltmarsh

    Fieldwork,VicWetlandRehab / June 23, 2020

  • Installing teabags in different saltmarsh community types

    Fieldwork,VicWetlandRehab / June 22, 2020

  • Weed Management Works: Improving brackish grassland habitat for increased water bird nesting ground

    Fieldwork,VicWetlandRehab / June 11, 2020

  • On-ground saltmarsh protection work completed at our Western Port site!

    Fieldwork,VicWetlandRehab / May 4, 2020

  • Modelling at Avalon Coastal Reserve

    Fieldwork,VicWetlandRehab / April 30, 2020

  • Saltmarsh fieldwork
    Changing the Tide!

    Fieldwork,Labwork,VicWetlandRehab / April 15, 2020

#coastalrestoration

Follow the program on social media using #coastalrestoration

Contact

Dr Melissa Wartman or

Dr Stacey Trevathan-Tackett

Blue Carbon Lab
  • Home
  • About
    • What we are about
    • Who we are
  • Research
    • Blue Carbon
      • Seychelles Blue Carbon
      • Queensland Blue
      • Victoria’s Blue Carbon
      • Western Australia Blue
      • Blue Carbon Management
      • Tea Composition H2O
    • Teal Carbon
      • Farm dams
      • Floating wetlands
      • Revitalising Australia’s Freshwater Wetlands
    • Valuing Ecosystem Services
      • Mapping Ocean Wealth
      • Guide to Valuing Coastal Wetlands
    • Ecosystem Restoration
      • Coastal Wetland Restoration
        • The Victorian Coastal Wetland Restoration Program
        • Restoring Avalon’s wetlands
        • Regenerating Our Coasts
        • Enabling Blue Carbon Markets
      • Kelp restoration
      • Freshwater Wetland Restoration
    • Citizen Science
      • HSBC citizen science
      • GeelongPort citizen science
    • Microplastics
    • Marine Biosecurity
    • Decommissioning Infrastructure
  • Publications
  • News
  • Opportunities
  • Contact
Blue Carbon Lab