Kuva Space Partners with WWF-Indonesia to Bring Hyperspectral Satellite Technology to Blue Carbon Verification and Sustainable Financing

Espoo, Finland and Jakarta, Indonesia — December 11, 2025. A new collaboration between Kuva Space and WWF-Indonesia aims to fast-track the verification of blue carbon by pairing hyperspectral satellites with artificial intelligence to monitor mangroves and seagrasses across Indonesia’s coastlines. The initiative will begin in key restoration landscapes in East Nusa Tenggara and East Kalimantan and seeks to create a scalable model for transparent blue carbon accounting and sustainable finance.

A new blueprint for blue carbon

Indonesia holds one of the world’s largest portfolios of blue carbon, thanks to its extensive mangrove forests and widespread seagrass meadows. Yet these ecosystems face mounting pressures from development, pollution, and sedimentation. By generating consistent, verifiable data on ecosystem health and carbon sequestration, the partnership is designed to support national climate strategies, strengthen conservation efforts, and build pathways for high-integrity blue financing.

The work will focus on mapping species composition, tracking habitat condition, and quantifying biomass and carbon stocks. Results are intended to feed directly into policy planning, project verification, and market valuation—cornerstones for building investor confidence and ensuring that carbon revenues can flow reliably to local stewards of coastal ecosystems.

Although blue carbon projects currently make up a small slice of voluntary carbon markets—less than 1% of issued credits—demand is rising. Accurate measurement, monitoring, and reporting are essential to scaling supply without compromising environmental integrity. The partners say the new approach is crafted to meet those expectations.

Why hyperspectral and AI change the game

Hyperspectral instruments capture hundreds of narrow spectral bands, revealing biochemical and structural signals that conventional satellite imagery misses. When fused with field observations and AI models, this spectral richness can distinguish between mangrove and seagrass species, detect stress, estimate biomass, and infer water quality—indicators that are critical for robust carbon accounting and long-term ecosystem management.

Traditionally, coastal habitat surveys have depended on field teams working site by site, often taking years to cover large areas. Spaceborne monitoring can dramatically increase coverage and revisit frequency, providing near-real-time insights and consistent baselines over time. This is expected to cut costs, improve accuracy, and reduce uncertainty in measurement and verification—key criteria for fair pricing and trustworthy carbon credits.

Voices from the field

WWF-Indonesia’s marine program leadership emphasized that healthy coastal ecosystems underpin both biodiversity and livelihoods. They noted that blending hyperspectral analytics with on-the-ground knowledge will sharpen the picture of where mangroves and seagrasses are thriving or declining, enabling faster, more cost-effective interventions. Importantly, they highlighted the potential for verified credits to channel benefits to coastal communities engaged in restoration and protection.

Regional conservation managers in East Nusa Tenggara welcomed the technology as a practical tool to strengthen day-to-day oversight of protected areas. With more precise and frequent monitoring, they expect management decisions to become more responsive and transparent, while also opening opportunities to design robust blue financing mechanisms that align with provincial development goals and directly support local people.

Kuva Space underscored that the partnership illustrates how global space-based data and local expertise can reinforce one another. By replacing patchy, labor-intensive surveys with consistent, scalable observations, the initiative aims to remove bottlenecks in verification, bring clarity to pricing, and accelerate the flow of sustainable finance to high-quality coastal projects.

National impact and next steps

Indonesia is home to roughly a fifth of the world’s mangroves, yet only about half are considered to be in high-quality condition. Seagrass meadows—vital nurseries for marine life and powerful carbon sinks—face similar pressures. The partners intend to produce actionable, independently verifiable datasets that help close these gaps, informing restoration targets and reinforcing standards for monitoring and reporting.

The project is aligned with Indonesia’s climate commitments, including its updated Nationally Determined Contribution and the Forest and Other Land Use (FOLU) Net Sink strategy. It also supports the country’s blue economy agenda and the priorities of the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries and the Provincial Government of East Nusa Tenggara by providing practical tools for routine monitoring, risk detection, and adaptive management.

Following the initial mapping of priority sites, the partnership plans to establish repeatable monitoring that can track seasonal and interannual change, refine carbon estimates, and detect early signs of stress or recovery. The resulting framework is intended to be replicated in other coastal nations, creating a consistent, transparent foundation for integrating blue carbon into global climate and finance systems.

About the partners

Kuva Space, founded in 2016 in Espoo, Finland, develops hyperspectral satellites and AI-powered analytics to deliver high-frequency, high-fidelity environmental insights. Its technology is designed to transform complex spaceborne data into operational intelligence for climate, food security, and resource management.

WWF-Indonesia is a civil society organization with a national presence and participation in a global network, working to conserve biodiversity, promote sustainable use of natural resources, and reduce pollution. The organization collaborates with communities, government, and industry to advance conservation solutions that sustain people and nature.