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Short abstract:

This study examines South Korea’s recent research initiative to claim the nation’s tidal flat as a new form of carbon sink. We analyze how the state utilizes ecological science to transform disorderly tidal flats into uniform, quantifiable, and comparable containers of carbon.

Long abstract:

While the IPCC currently recognizes only three types of marine ecosystems—mangroves, salt marshes, and seagrass beds—as effective carbon sinks, maritime nations are strategically generating evidence to claim other ecosystems as potential sources of carbon credit. In this study, we examine one such initiative by the South Korean government to cope with the rising pressure to reduce carbon emissions. South Korea’s recent research project on “blue carbon” proposes tidal flats as a promising part of its territory that can offset the nation’s carbon footprint. The research project highlights the carbon absorbed and stored by the marine ecosystem throughout Korea’s tidal flats, which will potentially serve as a useful carbon sink. By analyzing technical reports and interviewing stakeholders involved in this research, we show that the state utilizes ecological science to transform disorderly tidal flats into uniform, quantifiable, and comparable containers of carbon. In constructing an argument that Korean tidal flats do absorb carbon, the ecological scientists classify heterogeneous coastal spaces, sample representative tidal marshes, and circulate their scientific findings internationally. The work of the state-employed ecological scientists, however, is not purely scientific. As ecological scientists quantify the carbon cycle of coastal landscapes, they simultaneously reevaluate their cultural and economic significance. Tidal flats are considered worthy of preservation, not because of their ecological distinctiveness, but because of their ability to produce exchangeable carbon credit. Blue carbon counters reshape the physical and cultural landscape of tidal flats by prioritizing the number of carbon as the measure of coastal governance.