The four students of the Erasmus Mundus International Master's Programme on Circular Economy (CIRCLE) were convincing with their project "Karbon Biru" and were awarded one of the three winner cheques of € 10,000 as well as professional coaching.

The second edition of the WWF-NL INNO Student Challenge encourages students to present innovative solutions for nature conversation problems. Yulia, Pedro, Irlanda and Nasira have thought about the disturbed nutrient and biogeochemical cycle as part of their project. With their project, they want to find innovative ways to close the cycle and promote a regenerative economy through functional diversity. Karbon Biru is a mangrove and wetlands carbon sequestration project that goes beyond the conventional ‘pay to plant a tree’ model.

Their goal is to rebuild blue forests, which sequester more than ten times as much carbon as green forests; and to provide long-term carbon offsetting services to individuals and companies using biological CSS. With their project, they are also pursuing the provision of wastewater treatment and bioremediation in brackish ponds in combination with sustainable aquaculture in silvofishery. The Karbon Biru project will initially be implemented in Indonesia and later expanded to Brazil, Mexico and Pakistan. The goal is to plant up to 10,000,000 mangroves.