A global and regional view of the opportunity for climate-smart mariculture

Abstract

Food systems and the communities they support are increasingly challenged by climate change and the need to arrest escalating threats through mitigation and adaptation. To ensure climate change mitigation strategies can be implemented effectively and to support substantial gains in greenhouse gas emissions reduction, it is, therefore, valuable to understand where climate-smart strategies might be used for best effect. We assessed mariculture in 171 coastal countries for vulnerabilities to climate change (12 indicators) and opportunities to deliver climate mitigation outcomes (nine indicators). We identified Northern America and Europe as having comparatively lower regional vulnerability and higher opportunity for impact on climate mitigation. Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Norway and the United States of America were identified as well-positioned to advance strategies linked to mariculture. However, the nature of vulnerabilities and opportunities within and between all regions and countries varied, due to the formation of existing mariculture, human development factors and governance capacity. Our analysis demonstrates that global discussion will be valuable to motivating climate-smart approaches associated with mariculture, but to ensure these solutions contribute to a resilient future, for industry, ecosystems and communities, local adaptation will be needed to address constraints and to leverage local prospects. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Nurturing resilient marine ecosystems’.

Comparative Analysis of Sustainable Food Governance and the Alignment of Food Security Policies to Sustainable Development: A Case Study of OIC Countries

“…Other studies have recommended a revision of the GFSI to make it more efficient and robust [42][43][44]. In the same vein, some studies have conducted assessments of national food security performances using the GFSI and indicators of sustainability [41,43,45,46], economic development [47][48][49], governance [38,50,51], and food sovereignty variables like inclusivity [52][53][54], resiliency [55][56][57][58], sufficiency, local production, collective action [59,60], sustainable finance (access to funds, diversified financial products, and financial literacy) [61][62][63][64] and food literacy [65].…”

The potential climate benefits of seaweed farming in temperate waters

“…Most farmed seaweed is used as food, either consumed directly or as a food additive 13 , 15 , but in some economies (i.e., South Korea) seaweeds are increasingly being funneled into secondary production of abalone, also for human consumption 16 . Recent estimates have suggested that between 48 and 119 million km 2 of the global ocean (an area 24–60 times the size of Greenland) may be suitable for seaweed production 5 , 17 , however the industry remains nascent in most countries 5 , 18 .…”

“…We also conduct a preliminary assessment of economic feasibility. We applied our model to a case study in Canada, a nation identified to have extensive—but unexplored—potential to develop seaweed aquaculture for climate mitigation purposes 18 , 58 .…”

Climate benefits of seaweed farming: estimating regional carbon emission and sequestration pathways

“…Seaweed aquaculture currently accounts for 29% of the global aquaculture production by weight (FAO 2022) with the vast majority (over 99%) currently grown in Asia [21,39] . Recent estimates have suggested that between 48-119 million km 2 of the global ocean (an area 24-60 times the size of Greenland) may be suitable for seaweed production [5,40] , however the industry remains nascent in most countries [5,41] . Farming seaweeds also has other potential benefits including reducing excess anthropogenic nutrients in ocean water, nourishing coastal ecosystems, and reducing wave impacts on shorelines [4,42,43] .…”

“…We consider several CO2 sequestration and emissions pathways with a focus on production and processing emissions, and marine sequestration. We applied our model to a case study in Canada, a nation identified to have extensive -but unexplored -potential to develop seaweed aquaculture for climate mitigation purposes [41,46] .…”