Enable the Dominican Republic to sequester and store substantial blue carbon through the conservation and restoration of mangroves, thus diminishing greenhouse gasses from entering the atmosphere.  The path to achieving this result through this NAMA includes enhancing and focusing the national level policy environment through collective understanding and commitment to the NAMA; the application of sound science in quantifying the country’s current and potential carbon sequestering and storage capacity; analysis and pursuit of potential carbon credit income for the Dominican Republic; and a participatory role for the private sector and communities around the country to actively support conservation and restoration efforts.  Mangrove cover has been lost consistently in the Dominican Republic due to agriculture, real estate development, tourism, and other factors. Given the high C stocks of mangroves, the high emissions from their conversion, and the other important functions and services they provide, their inclusion in climate-change mitigation strategies is warranted (1).   Data on the amounts and rates of loss of mangrove cover differ for the Dominican Republic; according to the FAO, mangroves declined from 34,400 ha in 1980 to 21,215 ha in 1998 (2).   

Support for the Preparation of this NAMA will result in a robust Design, encompassing capacity-building, technical assistance, planning for financial mechanisms for long-term financing and sustainability, sound scientific research, and wide-ranging participation.  It will ensure that by the end of the Preparation phase that the country will be prepared to enter the Implementation phase.  Specifically, the preparation will contribute to the conservation and restoration of mangroves in the following ways:

- Quantify the carbon sink capacity of Mangroves in the Dominican Republic through a comprehensive inventory and analysis of ecological conditions and carbon stocks that are intact, under threat, or notably degraded.  This will facilitate participation at Tier 3 level of certainty of the carbon being conserved and sequestered. 
- The quantified carbon sink capacity will contribute to generating emission allowances, emission credits, and other types of CO2 compensation certificates. 

- Build national and local institutional capacity to assess the CO2 sequester capacity of mangroves in the Dominican Republic with the aim of transforming the entire sector to a net carbon sink development path. 

- Facilitate national dialogue on how to leverage carbon credits to promote greater competitiveness for small and medium-sized businesses through policies and financial mechanisms that help SMEs in the agriculture, fishing and tourism sectors build climate resilience into assets and operations.

- Develop national strategies to restore and reforest mangrove systems around the Dominican Republic that also engage communities through partnerships that articulate economic incentives for mangrove ecosystem conservation and reforestation with improved livelihoods.

- Establish a Blue Carbon NAMA Knowledge Toolkit that facilitates knowledge transfer to other organizations in Latin America, the Caribbean and outside the region that are facing similar development challenges. The toolkit will enable public and private sector leaders to. 

• Apply an emerging field of tools, products and services that cater to the coastal ecosystem financing and management in order to design a Blue Carbon NAMA.
• Identify transformational change; co-benefits; financial ambitions; and GHG mitigation.
• Design technical and financial components that can reduce GHG emissions (direct reductions), increase the volume of public finance mobilized for low carbon investment and development, increase the volume of private finance mobilized for low carbon investment and development, target the number of people directly benefitting from the NAMA Support Project (NSP), and support activities to catalyse impact beyond the project.