Marine protected areas (MPA) are a conservation tool that sets aside part of the ocean to protect it for long-term conservation, similar to the way a state or national park functions on land. These MPAs are an effective way to preserve biodiversity by protecting ecosystems. But how are they utilized by people, and do they support human engagement? And, while conservation alone is important, will MPAs build climate resilience?
Seaweed is a hot solution for mitigating climate change. Can this carbon-absorbing powerhouse really help?
Seaweed is having a moment. I’ve been working on seaweed for 40 years, and I’ve never seen so many headlines about how seaweed can save the planet.
I can understand why. The need to save the planet is more pressing than ever. We must now dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions and, at the same time, increase the planet’s capacity to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere to prevent even more catastrophic impacts of global warming.
Jose Luis Chicoma reflects on what needs to happen to create a sustainable food system.
By Jose Luis Chicoma and Karly Kelso
Last week, global leaders gathered in Rome for the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) +2 Stocktaking Moment, a follow-up event to evaluate commitments to transforming their food systems and progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) made in 2021. In short, it was a time to gather and take stock of where we are – and where we should go next.
How did it shape up?
In this interview, Jose Luis Chicoma, former Peru Minister of Production, Yale World Fellow and Senior Advisor to EDF Climate-Resilient Food Systems, who was present in Rome, shares personal reflections and his insights, concerns and hopes for the future. Food systems and ocean health go hand in hand, and reflections on aquatic blue food in concert with terrestrial food systems are key.
Workshop participants watching the echosounder identify schools of pelagics. Photo credit Joe Warren.
By EDF’s Jose Ingles, Jimely Flores and Rod Fujita, and Joseph Warren, Stony Brook University
Small fish have a big role. Fisheries for sardine, herring and anchovy species collectively produce more yield than any other fisheries worldwide and account for about one-third of total global catches arriving in ports. These fisheries span the globe and are critical for supporting livelihoods, aquaculture, food security, ecotourism and terrestrial animal husbandry (many catches are used to make fishmeal and fish oil). Read More
Fresh seafood at the market in the City of Tacloban, Eastern Visayas region. Photo credit Marcial Bolen.
Over the last couple of years, EDF has actively worked to raise the contributions of aquatic foods in transforming food systems and making progress on 9 of the 17 the Sustainable Development Goals—global goals established under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as a universal call to action to end poverty, to protect the planet, and to ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
Photo credit: Wahyu Mulyono/EDF
By Harlisa and Dustin Colson Leaning
In Lampung province, Indonesia, a few smartphones and three well-placed cameras are revolutionizing the way that small-scale fisheries are monitored. In a previous blog post, we introduced how smartphone-based catch reporting and the SmartPass camera system could have the potential to play a fundamental role in sustaining small-scale fisheries. A few years later, these two technologies have been implemented to generate reliable estimates of total effort and total catch in Lampung’s blue swimming crab fishery – metrics often hard to come by in a small-scale fishery characterized by limited resources and many fishers. Read More