Blue Carbon, Verified by Satellite, Governed by Community
Kaboni Yetu is a community-governed blue carbon credit origination platform spun out of Action For Ocean (AFO), delivering the Blue Carbon Project — a voluntary carbon credit market restoring community-managed mangroves in the Mnazi Bay-Ruvuma Estuary Marine Park (MBREMP), Tanzania. The project is funded through the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) and delivered with partners including WCS and Blue Forest, targeting dual certification under Plan Vivo and Tanzania's National Carbon Monitoring Centre (NCMC). This page is where the satellite side of that work lives: the mangrove extent, degradation, biomass, and carbon pool data that independently backs the programme's carbon claims. See recent programme milestones for progress updates.
What blue carbon is, and why mangroves matter
Blue carbon is the carbon stored in coastal and marine ecosystems — mangroves, seagrass, and tidal marshes. Mangroves are disproportionately effective at it: hectare for hectare, they store several times more carbon than tropical rainforest, most of it locked in waterlogged soil that can hold that carbon for centuries if left undisturbed. Losing a hectare of mangrove doesn't just remove a carbon sink — it releases the carbon already stored there. Protecting standing mangrove and restoring degraded mangrove are both, directly, climate interventions.
How satellite data supports carbon project MRV
Every credible blue carbon credit — under Plan Vivo, the NCMC, or any comparable standard — depends on Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV): independent evidence that the claimed area, condition, and carbon stock are real and holding. That's what the interactive map above provides for the Kaboni Yetu project area: mangrove extent compared across 2014 and 2024, mapped degradation with named hotspots for field follow-up, above-ground biomass and soil organic carbon value ranges, and the boundaries of the carbon pool strata used in stock estimation. It's satellite-derived, not self-reported, and it's built to sit alongside — and cross-check — the community's own monitoring data. See our Impact page for the programme-tracked figures this satellite data is verifying against.
Why community-led conservation is the model, not an add-on
The mangroves this data covers have been protected for generations by the villages of Mnazi Bay — not by an outside operator. Kaboni Yetu's structure keeps it that way: Village Natural Resource Committees, Village Liaison Committees, and Beach Management Units lead the monitoring and management decisions, and carbon credit revenue is routed back to the communities whose stewardship keeps the mangroves standing. Satellite monitoring like this doesn't replace that governance model — it gives it independently verifiable evidence, which is what lets community-led projects compete credibly for the same investment as top-down ones. Read more about how the programme works and who leads it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is blue carbon?
Blue carbon is the carbon captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems — mangroves, seagrass meadows, and tidal marshes. Mangroves in particular store carbon at several times the rate of tropical rainforests, both in living biomass and in the waterlogged soil beneath them, making their protection and restoration a high-impact climate strategy.
How does satellite monitoring verify a blue carbon project?
Carbon credit standards such as Plan Vivo and the NCMC require MRV — independent, repeatable evidence that a project's mangrove area, condition, and carbon stock are what it claims. The SatSense monitoring layers on this page provide that independent evidence: mangrove extent over time, degradation hotspots, and biomass/soil carbon estimates, cross-checked against community-reported figures.
What is community-led carbon conservation?
It means the communities who depend on and protect an ecosystem govern how it is managed and share directly in the value it generates. For Kaboni Yetu, Village Natural Resource Committees and Beach Management Units lead monitoring and management, and carbon credit revenue is routed back to the communities whose stewardship keeps the mangroves standing, rather than extracted by outside developers.
How is blue carbon different from other carbon credits?
Blue carbon projects in mangroves deliver a wider bundle of co-benefits alongside carbon storage than many forestry or industrial credits: fish nursery habitat that sustains local fisheries, coastal protection from storms and erosion, and biodiversity value — which is why blue carbon credits are increasingly sought by buyers looking for high-integrity, community-verified projects.
What voluntary carbon credit market does this data support?
This satellite data underpins the Blue Carbon Project, Action For Ocean's initiative (operating as Kaboni Yetu) to establish a voluntary carbon credit market that restores mangroves and supports vulnerable coastal communities in MBREMP, Tanzania. Funded through ORRAA and delivered with partners including WCS and Blue Forest, the project targets dual certification under Plan Vivo and Tanzania's National Carbon Monitoring Centre (NCMC).
