Our response to the Scottish Government Blue Carbon Action Plan
Earlier this year, the Scottish Government circulated a draft version of Scotland’s first Blue Carbon Action Plan with key stakeholders to gather comments and feedback. Project Seagrass was one of the organisations contacted as part of this process. The Blue Carbon Action Plan sets out the Scottish Government’s position and priorities for blue carbon habitats with emphasis in the Plan placed on the need to protect existing carbon stores in blue carbon habitats. Project Seagrass’ Senior Science Officer and Scotland Team Lead Dr Elizabeth Lacey reviewed the Plan and met with Scottish Government to share a series of recommendations to ensure that the Actions outlined in the Plan effectively represented and addressed knowledge gaps surrounding Scotland’s important seagrass habitats. It is disappointing that none of the recommendations provided by Project Seagrass have been incorporated into the final Scottish Blue Carbon Action Plan published earlier this month. Read the recommendations that we provided to the Scottish Government as part of the consultation process below: Key Areas for Improvement and Additional Action Items 1. Evaluate Carbon Sequestration Rates in Scottish Seagrass Meadows The Plan’s introductory text accurately highlights the lack of measured carbon sequestration rates for Scottish seagrass. However, this is not reflected in the list of action items. Measuring sequestration rates is well-established in the literature and could be incorporated into current or planned monitoring frameworks with relatively modest additional investment. Including this as a specific action would address an important evidence gap. 2. Improve Mapping of Seagrass Habitat ExtentThe under-mapping of seagrass beds in Scotland is acknowledged in the Plan, yet no corresponding action is outlined. Comprehensive habitat mapping is critical for understanding carbon storage potential, informing protection strategies, and guiding restoration efforts. This is an urgent need and should be prioritized as a stand-alone action. 3. Improve Mapping of Seagrass Carbon CaptureWhile the Plan includes detailed biomass and carbon mapping for salt marshes, similar work is not proposed for seagrass. Parameters such as biomass and sediment characteristics, which inform carbon stock estimates, are currently lacking for Scottish seagrass meadows. Including such surveys for seagrass would bring parity with other blue carbon habitats. Tools such as LIDAR—already proposed for salt marshes—could also be used to map seagrass-associated bathymetry, sediment dynamics, and coastal erosion. If coordinated with salt marsh mapping flights, this would offer efficient cross-habitat benefits for multiple agencies. 4. Understand Seagrass Health and PressuresAn action to assess the health of seagrass meadows and the pressures acting on them would strengthen the Plan. While this is included for salt marshes, it is not currently addressed for seagrass. Data on the impacts of water quality, dredging, sedimentation, and nutrient inputs are especially lacking in Scotland. These data are crucial to inform effective management and protection strategies and to identify opportunities for both active and passive restoration. 5. Support Habitat Restoration and CreationThe Plan opens with strong language in support of passive restoration—reducing pressures to allow natural recovery—but the associated actions lean heavily toward active restoration projects. Passive approaches are often more cost-effective and ecologically successful. Globally, numerous studies have developed habitat suitability models for active restoration, yet actual implementation success remains limited. An alternative, and potentially more impactful approach, would be to model areas experiencing seagrass decline and identify known pressures. This would help highlight locations with the highest potential for recovery through pressure reduction—supporting more strategic, evidence-based passive restoration. Comments on Existing Action Items Action 6 – Baseline Survey of Carbon Uptake and Storage in New Seagrass ProjectsWe have some concerns regarding the emphasis on measuring carbon in seagrass restoration areas. Current research indicates that it may take 10 years or more before restored seagrass meadows begin storing detectable levels of carbon. Moreover, SMEEF projects are intended to demonstrate effort, not guarantee ecological success. As such, relying on these sites for baseline data may lead to inaccurate or premature conclusions. Instead, we recommend prioritizing measurements in existing meadows across a range of environmental settings. This would provide more ecologically relevant and accurate data to inform national blue carbon estimates. Furthermore, the suggestion that this work will help “standardise monitoring of carbon storage” could benefit from clarification. Robust and standardised methods for measuring seagrass carbon storage already exist and are widely used by the global scientific community. Rather than developing new standards, Scotland could adopt these existing protocols to ensure comparability and scientific rigor. Action 7 – Supporting Habitat Restoration and CreationAs noted above, we recommend adding a complementary focus on passive restoration. Developing ‘opportunity maps’ that identify areas where seagrass is most likely to recover following pressure reduction would be a valuable tool. This would support more targeted interventions and help align restoration efforts with the most ecologically feasible and cost-effective strategies. Action 8 – Understanding Existing and Proposed ProtectionsWhile we recognize that fishing pressure is an important concern in some regions, our experience suggests that other stressors—including land-based runoff, pollution, aquaculture, and dredging—are more widespread and pressing in the context of Scottish seagrass meadows. These pressures are often overlooked in current management frameworks and would benefit from more explicit inclusion in future protection and policy planning.