By Patricia Espinosa, COP 30 Special Envoy for Latin America and the Caribbean and former UNFCCC Executive Secretary, and Roger-Mark De Souza, Vice President for Environment, The Pew Charitable Trusts

World leaders are wrapping up their time in Belém, Brazil, and bringing the 30th annual Conference of the Parties (COP 30) to a close. Brazil, the host of the historic 1992 Rio Earth Summit, anchored this Conference in the concept of mutirão – an enduring spirit of collective, community-driven effort. Now, as the focus shifts from negotiation to implementation, that spirit is more urgent than ever. Even if the talks themselves were contentious, the logic of Mutirão must guide what comes next: true collaboration across nations, communities, and sectors toward shared climate goals.

Countries across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) have long embodied this ethos. From Costa Rica’s pioneering payment for ecosystem services (PES) program and Mexico’s innovative emissions trading system (ETS) to Barbados’ bold Bridgetown Initiative for reforming global finance, the region has consistently advanced solutions that merge environmental ambition with social and economic ingenuity.

This leadership is born of necessity because the most effective response to climate change is collaboration, especially in the face of floods, hurricanes, landslides, forest fires, droughts, and other threats to people’s lives.

In the spirit of innovation and collaboration, countries across the region are embracing a powerful marine nature-based solution (NbS) to climate change: the conservation and sustainable management of coastal wetland ecosystems, including mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes.

Blue carbon ecosystems as nature-based solutions

Coastal wetlands are often referred to as “blue carbon” ecosystems for their extraordinary carbon storage capacity—three to five times greater than that of terrestrial tropical forests. In Belize alone, mangroves store approximately 25.7 million metric tons of carbon. When these ecosystems are degraded, that capacity is lost and emissions increase. By protecting and restoring these systems, countries can quantify and include them in their climate mitigation plans.

However, the climate benefits of coastal wetlands go well beyond carbon. Mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes act as natural infrastructure, buffering storm surges and stabilizing shorelines while filtering water and sustaining fisheries and biodiversity – foundations of tourism and local economies. The LAC region hosts about 26% of the world’s mangroves, and Caribbean seagrasses provide an estimated USD 255 billion per year in ecosystem services.

Countries in the region are already integrating these ecosystems into their climate action. Jamaica’s recent national climate action plan, for example, is informed by the maps and carbon stock assessments that Jamaica made for its mangroves and seagrasses and subsequently submitted to the UNFCCC in September. Similarly, Panama is taking strides to implement its 2024 climate commitments by mapping and conducting a carbon stock assessment of their seagrass ecosystems. Belize is closer than ever to achieving its 2021 climate commitments, including advancing public-private partnerships (PPPs) for mangrove conservation and developing a national seagrass management policy.

Adaptation first – empowering people

While the “blue carbon” values of coastal wetlands have garnered much attention, many countries that currently include these ecosystems in their national climate strategies do so primarily through adaptation. For small island developing States (SIDS) especially, protecting these ecosystems represents an essential investment in long-term resilience.

This emphasis on benefits to communities is best seen through on-the-ground partnerships that empower local people. Coastal wetland projects in Colombia, Belize, Costa Rica, and Mexico, among others, deliberately engage the very people who live near and depend on coastal wetlands. Mangrove restoration initiatives not only create alternative livelihoods for communities previously reliant on activities that degraded these ecosystems, but in doing so safeguard the natural capital that underscores local fisheries, clean water, and shoreline protection.

This people-centered approach recognizes that durable climate action requires alignment between national policymaking, international partnerships, and the socioeconomic needs of those on the front lines.

Innovative finance for coastal wetland conservation

Coastal wetland conservation falls within the estimated USD 700 billion annual financing gap globally for biodiversity. However, these blue carbon ecosystems have also been a focus for novel approaches to sustainable financing. Although the carbon sequestration values of coastal wetlands have again attracted interest in the potential for carbon market transactions, increasingly diverse tools have emerged, from blue bonds in Belize to debt swaps in Ecuador. There is also a growing body of work being supported by regional multilateral development banks, such as the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).

These pioneering examples serve as practical case studies for the wider structural shifts needed in global climate finance. At COP 29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, a new collective quantified goal to mobilize at least USD 300 billion annually, and striving for USD 1.3 billion by 2035, was agreed to. The Baku to Belém Roadmap, jointly led by the COP 29 and COP 30 Presidencies, seeks to outline how this goal will be achieved, with a particular focus on how to mobilize greater private capital.

Progress at COP 30 and beyond

While only one small part of the solution, nature-based solutions can help contribute to the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The conservation and restoration of coastal wetlands provide a case study in precisely the collective spirit of ambition, cooperation, and innovation that the Brazilian COP 30’s mutirão has appealed for – a proven, cost-efficient opportunity not only to make a measurable contribution to mitigating climate change, but also to support  frontline communities in adapting and becoming more resilient through approaches that empower local people and drive novel financing methods.

Countries across the LAC region can feel proud of leading these efforts and are now rallying others to follow suit.