This 18 month project, the very first of its kind in Sri Lanka, aims to gain an in-depth understanding of and develop a seagrass species composition map with information of the areas of each species composition at the Vidattaltivu Nature Reserve (VNR) with the long-term goal of establishing the island’s first blue carbon credit project.

Co-funded by the Blue Marine Foundation, this ambitious project comes at a very timely moment, with Sri Lanka undergoing its worse economic crisis since independence in 1948. With the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) proposing to the Sri Lankan government to make use of debt-for-nature swaps – which would allow a portion of the government’s large debt burden to be forgiven in exchange for the implementation of environmental policies or funding of conservation programmes – projects such as this could be the very first step towards moving towards a blue green economy.

Project objectives include;