Co‐occurrence of surf breaks and carbon‐dense ecosystems suggests opportunities for coastal conservation

Surf breaks are increasingly recognized as socio‐environmental phenomena that provide opportunities for biodiversity conservation and sustained benefits for local communities. Here, we examine an additional benefit from improved conservation of the ecosystems that host and surround surf breaks—their coincidence with carbon dense coastal ecosystems. Using global spatial datasets of irrecoverable carbon (defined as carbon stocks that, if lost today, could not be recovered within 30 years' time), surf break locations, ecosystem types, protected areas, and Key Biodiversity Areas, we identified 88.3 million tonnes of irrecoverable carbon held in surf ecosystems. Of this total, 17.2 million tonnes are found in Key Biodiversity Areas without formal measures of protection. These results highlight surf conservation as a potential avenue to simultaneously mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, and promote sustainable development in coastal communities. We examine the intersection of global surf breaks, Key Biodiversity Areas, protected areas, and carbon dense ecosystems to identify priority areas for conservation. We find roughly 90 million tonnes of C across more than 3600 surf breaks, suggesting that strengthened conservation of ecosystems near surf breaks can contribute to climate mitigation goals.