ABSTRACT
Some countries in Africa and South America have relatively intact coastal wetland systems, where perhaps there is an opportunity to build coastal development in a climate-smart and environmentally resilient manner, though institutional, regulatory, and economic constraints abound. The Sustainable Development Strategy for the Seas of East Asia includes provisions in its climate strategy for employing and optimizing a range of new and innovative financial mechanisms available in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and other international agreements, including payment schemes involving blue carbon. The Rockefeller Foundation-funded 100 Resilient Cities program, for instance, provides resources for cities to hire a Chief Resilience Officer and implement a Resilience Strategy. Maintaining healthy coastal wetlands, as components of the wider terrestrial and marine ecosystems that they bridge, are important for many reasons from supporting local economies to buffering climate change.
