Cross-Border, Nature Based Market Solutions to Protect Blue Carbon Coastal Ecosystems in the Californias

March 2022

habitat loss across the Las Californias (due to direct human activity and other climate change related factors), there is a growing need to examine alternative cross-border approaches to promote binationally coordinated climate action and habitat protection. This report is divided into six sections (including conclusions and recommendations) and aims to answer the following key questions:

III. What legal and policy considerations (from both sides of the border) must be taken into account to catalyze cross border conservation along the Baja California peninsula? What funding mechanisms exist, through carbon markets, to catalyze cross-border conservation for coastal wetlands and adjoining landscapes along the Baja California peninsula? How can funding be effectively distributed based on blue carbon valuation of coastal lands? What other ecosystem services could be maximized with these funds? chaparral belts of the Sierra Juarez and Sierra San Pedro Martir, as well as the coastal areas south to about El Rosario as well as the Coronados, Todos Santos and Guadalupe islands, located in Baja California, 16 and Cedros Island, located in Baja California Sur. The California Floristic Province also includes the Southern California Bright (SCB—see Figure 2 below), a 426 mile (685km) long stretch of curved coastline found along the California Current System that extends from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County to Punta Colonet in Baja California, Mexico. 17 The California Floristic Province is home to 470 vertebrate animal species and approximately 38% of vertebrate species found in the state of California. However, the SCB is not only one of the most productive coastal IV. V. 1/042.007.0116/Island-Specialists--Shared-Flora-of the-Alta-and-Baja/10.3398/042.007.0116.full 17 Faycal Kessouri, et al, Configuration and validation of an oceanic physical and biogeochemical model to investigate coastal eutrophication in the Southern California Bight, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems. Vol 13, Issue 12, December 2021 https://doi.org/10.1029/2020MS002296

I.

What makes the Las Californias Bioregion unique? What is the disparity between the economic growth and ecosystem destruction between California and the Baja California peninsula?

II.

I. What makes the Las Californias Region unique?

The Las Californias biosphere is a binational region that includes the California Floristic Province (See Figure 1 ). Considered a global biodiversity hot spot, the California Floristic Province 15 is characterized by its Mediterranean climate and encompasses 70% of the State of California (including the Channel Islands) and extends into southwestern Oregon and southward into northern Baja California— including the Tijuana River Watershed, the forests and 15 https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity hotspots/california-floristic-province 16 Ratay, S. , S. Vanderplank & B. T. Wilder. 2014. Island Specialists: Shared Flora of the Alta and Baja California Pacific Islands. Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist. 7 (1) 161-220. Available at: https://bioone.org/journals/monographs-of-the western-north-american-naturalist/volume-7/issue

10 | P a g e