An island in Xiangshan county, Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: nbfb0574]

About 2,340 metric tons of blue carbon will be auctioned off in Xiangshan county, Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province on Feb 28.

The auction, the first of its kind in the nation, will be staged in Xiangshan's Huangbi'ao township and open to State-owned enterprises and public institutions.

The starting price is set at 30 yuan ($4.41) per ton and the auctioneers have to pay a deposit of 30,000 yuan, according to the organizers.

Blue carbon refers to carbon dioxide that is absorbed from the atmosphere and stored in the ocean. The trading of blue carbon primarily focuses on coastal blue carbon: carbon stored by saltwater ecosystems in their vegetation and soils. These ecosystems - salt marshes, mangroves, seagrass meadow - have deep, water-logged soils which can bury many times more carbon per acre than even a tropical rainforest.

Xiangshan, which has the longest coastline and second largest sea area in Zhejiang, is among the first places in the province to promote low-carbon transformation.

The auction will facilitate the development of local blue carbon resources, which are expected to generate substantial economic and ecological benefits for the region, noted experts.