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Mangrove-based carbon market projects (MbCMP) aim to conserve, protect and restore mangrove habitats in order to generate high quality blue carbon credits via a crediting program, as a contribution to climate change mitigation/adaptation, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services provision and local socio-economic development. The blue carbon credits generated are transferable, verifiable and sold through carbon markets to earn additional income for governments and local communities. The main aim of the paper is to provide important considerations for pre-field planning, that is, how challenges associated with fieldwork, project implementation, and monitoring reporting and verification (MRV) can be addressed with proper pre-field planning. Herein, we present a comprehensive list of some major concerns, which should be addressed by MbCMP developers and other stakeholders prior to embarking on fieldwork and project implementation. Moreover, we propose a methodological protocol and guideline principles for enhancing field data collection, project implementation and MRV planning. This should help address the major concerns that contribute to inaccurate and controversial baselines and project scenarios around MbCMP. By addressing these major concerns and adhering to the proposed methodological protocol and guideline principles during pre-field preparation planning, MbCMP developers and the respective MbCMP stakeholders can effectively improve the accuracy and efficiency of field data collection to estimate robust and reliable baseline and project scenarios. This will go a long way to building public trust, support and engagement in MbCMP to achieve the desired positive ecological, economic and social outcomes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no potential real or perceived conflict of interest. Authors Ewane Basil Ewane, Pavithra S. Pitumpe Arachchige and Midhun Mohan are affiliated with Ecoresolve. Pandi P. Selvam is employed by GAIT. He also serves as a science advisor for Ecoresolve, along with Wan Shafrina Wan Mohd Jaafar. Reem AlMealla is associated with Nuwat for Environmental Research & Education. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Mangroves in Southeast Asia provide numerous supporting, provisioning, regulating, and cultural services that are crucial to the environment and local livelihoods since they support biodiversity conservation and climate change resilience. However, Southeast Asia mangroves face deforestation threats from the expansion of commercial aquaculture, agriculture, and urban development, along with climate change-related natural processes. Ecotourism has gained prominence as a financial incentive tool to support mangrove conservation and restoration. Through a systematic literature review approach, we examined the relationships between ecotourism and mangrove conservation in Southeast Asia based on scientific papers published from 2010 to 2022. Most of the studies were reported in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, respectively, which were associated with the highest number of vibrant mangrove ecotourism sites and largest mangrove areas compared to the other countries of Southeast Asia. Mangrove-related ecotourism activities in the above countries mainly include boat tours, bird and wildlife watching, mangrove planting, kayaking, eating seafood, and snorkeling. The economic benefits, such as an increase in income associated with mangrove ecotourism, have stimulated infrastructural development in ecotourism destinations. Local communities benefited from increased access to social amenities such as clean water, electricity, transportation networks, schools, and health services that are intended to make destinations more attractive to tourists. Economic benefits from mangrove ecotourism motivated the implementation of several community-based mangrove conservation and restoration initiatives, which attracted international financial incentives and public-private partnerships. Since mangroves are mostly located on the land occupied by indigenous people and local communities, ensuring respect for their land rights and equity in economic benefit sharing may increase their intrinsic motivation and participation in mangrove restoration and conservation initiatives. Remote sensing tools for mangrove monitoring, evaluation, and reporting, and integrated education and awareness campaigns can ensure the long-term conservation of mangroves while sustaining ecotourism's economic infrastructure and social amenities benefits., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no potential real or perceived conflict of interest. Authors Ewane Basil Ewane, Jorge F. Montenegro, Redeat Daneil, Austin Blanton, Freddie McTavish, Luisa Fernanda Valasquez-Camacho, Pavithra S. Pitumpe Arachchige, G.A. Pabodha Galgamuwa, Shalini A.L. King, Shruthi Srinivasan, Meshal M. Abdullah, Wan Shafrina Wan Mohd Jaafar, Tarig Ali, and Midhun Mohan are affiliated with Ecoresolve Inc. Ewane Basil Ewane, Jorge F. Montenegro, and Midhun Mohan were also employed by BlueForests Inc. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Tropical rainforests of Latin America (LATAM) are one of the world's largest carbon sinks, with substantial future carbon sequestration potential and contributing a major proportion of the global supply of forest carbon credits. LATAM is poised to contribute predominantly towards high-quality forest carbon offset projects designed to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, halt biodiversity loss, and provide equitable conservation benefits to people. Thus, carbon markets, including compliance carbon markets and voluntary carbon markets continue to expand in LATAM. However, the extent of the growth and status of forest carbon markets, pricing initiatives, stakeholders, amongst others, are yet to be explored and extensively reviewed for the entire LATAM region. Against this backdrop, we reviewed a total of 299 articles, including peer-reviewed and non-scientific gray literature sources, from January 2010 to March 2023. Herein, based on the extensive literature review, we present the results and provide perspectives classified into five categories: (i) the status and recent trends of forest carbon markets (ii) the interested parties and their role in the forest carbon markets, (iii) the measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) approaches and role of remote sensing, (iv) the challenges, and (v) the benefits, opportunities, future directions and recommendations to enhance forest carbon markets in LATAM. Despite the substantial challenges, better governance structures for forest carbon markets can increase the number, quality and integrity of projects and support the carbon sequestration capacity of the rainforests of LATAM. Due to the complex and extensive nature of forest carbon projects in LATAM, emerging technologies like remote sensing can enable scale and reduce technical barriers to MRV, if properly benchmarked. The future directions and recommendations provided are intended to improve upon the existing infrastructure and governance mechanisms, and encourage further participation from the public and private sectors in forest carbon markets in LATAM., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no potential real or perceived conflict of interest. Authors Marcela Rondon, Ewane Basil Ewane, Jorge F. Montenegro, Austin Blanton, Judith Pons, and Midhun Mohan, were employed by the company Ecoresolve Inc. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)