CarbonEthics is helping Indonesia decarbonize and protect its mangroves
Indonesia is seeking to protect and increase its mangrove populations, which are powerful natural carbon sinks. Social enterprise, CarbonEthics, links businesses and individuals to opportunities to support this effort and reduce their carbon footprint.
The mangrove tree, known for its ability to thrive in salty waters, is a natural tool in the fight against climate change, able to absorb and store “almost 10 times as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than terrestrial forests.” However, factors such as sea level rise and increasing coastal development risk leading to the disappearance of mangroves by 2050. Global actors such as the Global Mangrove Alliance are seeking to halt the loss of mangrove ecosystems, restore at least half of recent losses by 2030, and secure mangrove ecosystems over the long term.
Coastal countries are also pursuing national strategies to preserve and rehabilitate their mangrove populations. Indonesia is the world’s most mangrove rich nation, comprising 22% of the world’s mangrove area. Over the past 30 years, around 800,000 hectares of the country’s mangrove area have been lost. In response, Indonesia is pursuing a national strategy to rehabilitate 600,000 hectares of mangroves by 2024
Private sector actors such as CarbonEthics are supporting these efforts by providing tech-based solutions for decarbonization. Launched in 2019 as a non-profit organization with a social enterprise arm, CarbonEthics offers businesses and individuals three climate solutions.
The first, mangrove tree planting, aims to protect Indonesia’s environmental landscape while providing livelihood opportunities for local communities. Having organized tree-planting campaigns for national and multinational companies, CarbonEthics reports that it has preserved over 20 flora and fauna and reached 284 beneficiaries from coastal communities.
CarbonEthics’s second offering is end-to-end support to design and execute nature-based carbon projects, defined as “initiatives that harness the power of natural ecosystems – such as forests, wetlands, and soils – to absorb CO₂ from the atmosphere and store it in biomass and soil.” The CarbonEthics process involves feasibility studies, Project Design Document (PDD) development, execution, and assistance in obtaining carbon certification and selling carbon credits.
Finally, as part of its carbon consultancy offerings, CarbonEthics assesses, monitors, and reports institutions’ emissions to help them construct plans towards their net-zero goals.
Since its launch, the organization has forged partnerships to help further its goals. In 2020, CarbonEthics became an implementing partner to the World Resource Institute Indonesia and in 2022 provided carbon consulting and offsetting support to the organizers of the G20 event series taking place in Indonesia. Since 2023, CarbonEthics has partnered with public bus system Transjakarta to spread educational content on mangroves and climate change.
As of September 2024, CarbonEthics has conducted pre-feasibility studies for carbon projects covering 4.2 million hectares and aims to manage 8 million hectares by 2030. During the same month, CarbonEthics completed a seed funding round of US$2.1 million, helping it progress towards this goal. By making it easier for individuals and institutions to support decarbonization efforts, CarbonEthics is supporting both national and global pursuits towards net-zero.
