*3.2. Respondents' Awareness of Blue Carbon Ecosystem Services*

The awareness level of mangrove ES in Busuanga is fairly consistent where 27.6% to 35.7% of the respondents in Busuanga are "very aware" of all the ES (i.e., source of food, coastal protection, carbon sequestration, a habitat of many organisms, cultural services) listed in the questionnaire while only 10.2% to 22.4% are not aware of these benefits (Figure 2). Meanwhile, the recognition of seagrass ES depends on the type of service. Seagrass beds as a source of food, habitat, nursery, feeding and breeding ground of many organisms, and site for cultural activities are highly recognized ("moderate" to "extremely aware") by 50.0% to 60.2% of the respondents while regulating services like coastal protection and natural buffer are poorly known ("not aware") by 42.9% to 45.9% of the sample size. Another regulating service that the locals are not so familiar with is the capacity of seagrasses to sequester and store carbon; a little over half (54.1%) of them are aware while 45.9% are "slightly aware" to "not aware".


**Table 1.** Socio-demographic profile of the respondents from Busuanga and Karimunjawa.

Meanwhile, in Karimunjawa, trends on the awareness level of mangroves and seagrasses' ES are the same (Figure 2). About 37.0% to 45.7% (mangroves) and 30.4% to 35.6% (seagrasses) of the respondents are "extremely aware" of supporting (serves a nursery, feeding, and breeding area), regulating (coastal protection and natural buffer), and cultural (recreational and educational) services. Also, 32.6% to 37.0% of the respondents are "very aware" that BCEs serve as habitats for many organisms and have water filtration functions. Interestingly, almost half (43.5% to 45.7%) of the respondents are "not aware" that these ecosystems are a great source of food. Moreover, similar patterns with Busuanga were observed in Karimunjawa for blue carbon functions, where 50.0% to 52.2% of the respondents are "moderate" to "extremely aware" while 47.8% to 50.0% are "slightly" to "not aware".

The Mann–Whitney U test was used to compare the awareness level between the two study sites (Table 2). Based on the analysis, the respondents in Karimunjawa have higher recognitions (M = 3.7 to 4.0, "very aware") of supporting (nursery, feeding, breeding area), regulating (coastal protection and natural buffer), and cultural (recreational and educational) services of mangroves than Busuanga's awareness level, which is "moderately aware" (M = 2.9 to 3.3). Conversely, provisioning services of mangroves (source of food) are perceived higher (M = 3.4, "moderately aware") in Busuanga compared to Karimunjawa (M = 2.6, "slightly aware"). For seagrass awareness, relatively similar trends with mangrove awareness were observed. Respondents in Karimunjawa have higher perceptions, "moderate" to "very aware" that seagrasses can serve as a nursery, feeding, and breeding ground (M = 3.7), habitat for many organisms (M = 3.7), protect coastal areas (M = 3.4), and act as a natural buffer (M = 3.5) compared to Busuanga's "slight" to "moderate" awareness (M = 2.4 to 3.0).


**Figure 2.** Awareness level of Busuanga (n = 98) and Karimunjawa (n = 47) respondents of BCE services. The awareness level is based on a five-point Likert scale (1 = not aware, 2 = slightly aware, 3 = moderately aware, 4 = very aware, 5 = extremely aware).
