Mangrove Restoration in the Mallorquín Swamp, Colombia
Barranquilla is Colombia’s fourth largest city, and population expansion in and around the city has created numerous environmental problems.
Barranquilla is Colombia’s fourth largest city, and population expansion in and around the city has created numerous environmental problems.
Barranquilla is Colombia’s fourth largest city, and urban expansion both in and around the city has created a number of environmental problems. Encroachment on the Mallorquín Swamp, on the northern edge of the city, has made residents more vulnerable to climate change and harmed livelihoods.
Mangroves in the swamp have historically provided significant value by mitigating floods, protecting biodiversity and fisheries, storing carbon, and supporting tourism. However, urban development and waste disposal have damaged this vital ecosystem and limited its capacity to provide these services.
To address this, Barranquilla Verde (the city’s environmental authority) is looking to restore mangroves in the Mallorquín Swamp, supported by World Resources Institute Colombia, as part of the BiodiverCities initiative. We produced an integrated cost-benefit analysis to assess the monetized social, economic, and environmental outcomes of restoration over 20 years.
We assessed:
Our assessment found that NBI in the Mallorquín Swamp creates more value for society, at a lower cost, than the grey infrastructure alternatives. The restored swamp could support the local economy and provide significant climate adaptation benefits.
The report is complemented by technical appendices with methodological details about the system dynamics model and spatial analysis that were developed for the valuation.
The NBI Global Resource Centre aims to bring together key partners to establish a business case for Nature-Based Infrastructure (NBI).
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