392 square kilometres of mangrove, storing 20 million tonnes of carbon: Costa Rica counts what its coasts are worth

Costa Rica's mangroves have never lacked admirers — they shelter manatees, leatherback turtles and American crocodiles, and nurseries of fish besides. Now they have an audited balance sheet. A new report released in San José during the UN nature conference finds the country's mangroves cover about 392 square kilometres, store more than 20 million tonnes of carbon in their soils, and provide ecosystem services worth over $1.5 billion a year. It also identifies 1,891 hectares that could be restored — former shrimp ponds, salt works and waterways cut off from the tide — with the Gulf of Nicoya and Térraba-Sierpe as priorities. Costa Rica was the first country with a national blue carbon strategy, and its long-running payments-for-ecosystem-services programme has channelled about $750 million to more than 21,000 landholders since 1997. One estuary project at Puntarenas has already restored about 300 hectares, the largest mangrove engineering effort in Central America. The report's ask is simple: the foundations are strong — now bring the finance to match them.

SDG 14 · Life below water — Mechanism: institutional program