Survey on Seagrass Ecosystems
Seagrass ecosystems are vital habitats for migratory marine species such as dugongs, marine turtles, and sharks. They play a key role in climate change mitigation and adaptation while providing essential services like carbon sequestration, biodiversity maintenance, and coastal protection.
Key regions requiring further support, such as Southeast Asia, West Asia, East Africa, and the Caribbean, host significant seagrass habitats. However, these ecosystems face mounting threats from pollution, habitat loss, climate change, and coastal development.
To help policymakers address these challenges, the CMS Office – Abu Dhabi is conducting a survey to gather information on ongoing conservation initiatives and policies across these regions. Your insights are invaluable, and we encourage your participation in this important effort.
The information collected will inform the development of region-specific policy briefs. Please feel free to share this survey with other interested stakeholders.
To access the survey please click on the link: https://forms.office.com/e/AVjfgXYyGQ?origin=lprLink
Please contact us at CmsOffice.ae@cms.int for further inquiries or additional information.
Seagrass Watch
Hosts the Global Seagrass Observing Network, an ongoing global seagrass monitoring effort that collects data from 408 sites in 21 countries.
UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Hosts the Ocean Data Viewer, which offers a range of spatial datasets collected by a range of internationally respected scientific institutions and organisations that have made their data available to the global community, with the hope that these data will support and encourage informed decision-making that sustains global biodiversity and ecosystem services. There is a dedicated dataset for the global distribution of seagrasses.
Ocean Health Index
Uses a comprehensive framework to measure ocean health from global to local scales. The Index measures the global state of the world’s oceans. An Index score for 220 countries & territories, the Antarctic region, and 15 sections of the high seas, is calculated using existing global data. Data is provided by country/territory and by a range of components (e.g. artisanal fishing opportunities, coastal livelihoods and economies, biodiversity etc.) including global carbon storage and seagrass datasets.
CAMRIS Seagrass Dataset
This data contains information about the distribution of seagrass around the Australian coastline.
https://researchdata.edu.au/camris-seagrass-dataset/968386
Environment Agency Abu Dhabi
This dataset represents seagrass habitat distribution, collected through satellite image processing, in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
https://addata.gov.ae/dataset/seagrass?language=en
Coral Reef Funding Landscape
Explores international funding allocations for the sustainable management of coral reefs and related mangroves and seagrass ecosystems. Use the Seagrass filter option to discover current and historic global funding efforts, including details of total project cost, spatial and temporal scale, donors, beneficiaries and thematic area. https://coralfunders.com/. Also available as a summary report