Exploring Australian landholders' readiness to restore coastal wetlands: Motivations, challenges and opportunities for blue carbon projects on private land

Abstract

Coastal wetlands—such as mangroves and saltmarshes are vital global carbon sinks. In Australia, many of these wetlands are concentrated on private lands, but are in decline due to land clearing for urban development and agriculture. One opportunity to safeguard these ecosystems is through voluntary coastal wetland restoration. However, little is known about landholder's interest in recovering such wetlands. We conducted a survey with coastal landholders across Australia to explore their readiness to restore coastal wetlands, and their motivations and challenges to engage in restoration policy measures such as blue carbon projects on their properties. Using Exploratory Factor Analyses we identified key drivers of landholder readiness, followed by a cluster analysis to segment landholders based on their levels of readiness and shared characteristics. We found that motivations were largely shaped by stewardship and environmental values, including climate change outcomes. Barriers included limited technical knowledge on restoration, financial uncertainty, and concerns about project contracts and regulatory complexity. The cluster analysis revealed three landholder groups: ‘Eco-stewards’, ‘Optimists’, and ‘Reluctant adopters’. Eco-stewards were motivated by legacy and environmental values, showing strong interest in restoration, and blue carbon projects with minimal demand for financial assistance. “Optimists” valued both environmental and economic benefits but are likely to require more technical and administrative support. “Reluctant adopters” prioritised land autonomy and profitability and showed the least interest in adopting blue carbon projects. Our findings highlight that flexible programs with tailored support, and simplified project pathways are important to promote wide scale coastal wetland restoration projects in Australia.