Belize Mangrove Blue Carbon and Fisheries Co-benefits Data

Mangroves habitats are found throughout Belize and provide multiple ecosystem services co-benefits to coastal communities, including coastal protection, habitat for commercially valuable species, tourism and recreation, and carbon storage and sequestration. A mangrove restoration plan is currently being designed in Belize to strengthen equity and the adaptation capacity of communities dependent on mangroves and reduce climate risks by co-designing equitable nature-based solutions to support local communities and ecosystems. An updated national baseline of current mangrove extent and conditions has been mapped out by Jaramar Villarreal through WWF (2024) and the Belize mangrove restoration plan has two potential interventions: a feasible (cost-effective and realistic) and an optimistic restoration strategy (expensive) for restoring mangroves. These mangroves maps (baselines and scenarios) were run through the InVEST blue carbon model and lobster fisheries model with the goal to quantify and map the potential co-benefits of those interventions. These nature-based solution scenarios can help identify priority locations to restore mangroves to help meet Belize’s NDC goals and foster co-benefits to local communities. This data package includes the blue carbon and lobster fishery InVEST model outputs, maps, and associated metadata from the two mangrove restoration scenarios.