The Salazar Center is proud to announce that Tannia Frausto, Climate Change Director for WILDCOAST, will be joining us in Denver, Colorado for the fifth-annual International Symposium on Conservation Impact.
Based in Mexico City, Mexico, Tannia oversees and coordinates WILDCOAST’s blue carbon programs in Mexico and California. She leads WILDCOAST’s blue carbon policy initiatives in Mexico to promote mangrove conservation and restoration. Tannia joined WILDCOAST in 2013 as the Oaxaca Coast Coordinator where she initiated a program to protect the coral reefs of Huatulco National Park and helped to conserve globally important sea turtle nesting beaches.
In 2015, Tannia coordinated a pioneering RAMSAR Wetlands of International Importance management program with Mexico’s National Commission for Protected Areas (CONANP), as the Conservation Management Coordinator.
In 2017, Tannia was promoted to Wetlands and Climate Change Manager and helped to launch WILDCOAST’s blue carbon mangrove conservation and carbon sequestration work. Prior to joining WILDCOAST, Tannia carried out research and conservation work for the protection of coral reefs and sea turtles. Tannia holds a B.S. in Biology from the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico City and an M.S. in Marine Ecology from Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior (CICESE) in Ensenada.
Newly emerging science points to tidal salt marshes and seagrass beds as carbon sequestration powerhouses, potentially storing up to 50 times the carbon of a rainforest. WILDCOAST recently founded the Blue Carbon Collaborative: a network of organizations and individuals representing science, technology, and policy with a common goal to identify gaps and standardize practices surrounding blue carbon conservation, research, policy and resources. Coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangrove forests, wetlands and seagrass areas have great potential for carbon sequestration. These blue carbon ecosystems are a natural solution to climate change. Stemming from their conservation work on mangroves in Mexico, WILDCOAST began examining wetlands in California as potential opportunities for natural solutions. Through the Collaborative, WILDCOAST has identified a need for collaboration around blue carbon research and policy in California.