PHOTO(S): © James Forte/National Geographic
This goal captures the ability of coastal habitats to store carbon given the amount of carbon they store and their health.
The current score indicates that the three habitats assessed for carbon storage- mangroves, seagrass beds, and salt marshes - are still relatively healthy and intact on a global basis.
Generally we know that there is a global decline in carbon storing habitat extent and health since 1980, but for the most part this is hard to monitor, and many of the data associated with these habitats are of poor quality (aside from mangroves). In particular, habitat health data is extremely lacking, and for all of our carbon storing habitats we do not have data which are tracked over time. As a result we rely on global health values. For this reason, we see a stagnant global score for the Carbon Storage goal.