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Future Sustainable Seaweed Industries in Europe –Social Aspects and the Need for Public Dialogues

Rita Clancy, EURIDA Research Management‘MacroFuels’ Communication and Public Engagement

9th Nordic Seaweed Conference, 9th Oct 2019, Grenaa/DK

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Social Impacts

“Social impacts can be understood as events that can lead to changes in human wellbeing.” Weidema, Dreyer et al., Jørgensen et al., Social Life Cycle Assessment

Aspects

Indicators for “wellbeing”

Affected groups

Perceived vs. objectively measurable

Benchmarking

Acceptable levels of change

To build sustainable industries social aspects that can result in social impacts have to be understood and considered as early as possible.

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Social Aspects and Social Facts

A social fact consists of collective thoughts and shared expectations that influence individual actions. Examples of social facts include social roles, norms, laws,

values, beliefs, rituals, and customs. (Emile Durkheim)

Perceptions, values and customs have to be understood (might differ with region, education, occupation, age etc.)

Participatory concepts to assess social aspects and impacts –Citizen Panels, Focus Groups

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Public perception - “Everybody loves seaweed”

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“Everybody loves seaweed”

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So let us grow and use seaweed, teach everyone how healthy and climate friendly it is

and help to save the planet!

The End

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So let us grow and use seaweed, teach everyone how healthy and climate friendly it is

and help to save the planet!

The End

Not Quite

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The Challenges (Alert! Europe-centric view)

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Mechanised wild harvest Small-scale cultivation

Select applications Growing demand

Seaweed industry in Europe today

Strong ecosystem impact Supply issues

Lack of market pull Opportunity & challenge

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Visions for the future of seaweed in Europe

Large-scale seaweed farmsAutomated processes

Diversified usage for- Food- Feed

- Pharma- Bioenergy

- Biomaterials

Biorefinery

Bioremediation

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Assessing Social Impacts

Social Life Cycle Assessment (s-LCA)Assess the social aspects of productsand their potential positive andnegative impacts along their lifecycle:Production of feedstock;Pre-treatment & conversionProductionDistributionUse, re-use; maintenance; recycling;and final disposal.

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The MacroFuels Case

Develop technologies to produce advanced liquid biofuels from seaweed for transportation i.e. aviation, cargo and truck fuels.

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CultivationHarvesting, pre-treatment

& storage

Conversion Fuel & transport

Sustainability and social aspects along the value chain

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General approach and findings

Combined literature analysis, Social Hotspots Database and participatory formats – Citizen Panel ‘Coastal Community’, online questionnaire

Valuable insights gained from local communities Different perspectives on ‘wellbeing’, public perceptions and support

strongly depend on Scale of operations Environmental performance Local economic opportunities Co-use opportunities Previous knowledge

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Cultivation

Sustainability and social aspects along the value chain

Work places

Economic development of coastal regions

Environmental state of coastal

communities

Protection of shorelines in vulnerable

areas Revival of rural areas

Regional empowerment

Influx of non-local workforce

Other ocean uses

Climate change

mitigation

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Harvesting, pre-treatment

& storage

Sustainability and social aspects along the value chain

Work places

Settling of further seaweed-based industries in rather remote

areas

Regional development & empowerment

Influx of non-local workforce

Automatisation of processes

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Conversion

Sustainability and social aspects along the value chain

Influx of non-local workforce

Work places

Settling of further seaweed-based industries in rather remote

areas

Regional development & empowerment

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Fuel & transport

Sustainability and social aspects along the value chain

Work places

Climate change

mitigation Decarbonise Transport

Health & Safety

Counter ILUCSupport

market pull

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Social Risks vs Opportunities

Work places

Influx of non-local workforce

Other ocean uses

Economic development of coastal regions

CultivationLow income jobs

Seasonal work

Community cohesion

Cultural changePotential revival

Competitionvs.

Co-use

Industrialisation of rural areas

Economic growth

Most can be avoided or mitigated by sound practice and standards

Automated processes

Economy vs. labour displacement

Environmentalconcerns

Negative perception

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CultivationLow income jobs

Seasonal work

Community cohesion

Cultural changePotential revival

Competitionvs.

Co-use

Include social standards in European

and international standards

(equal to MSC-ASC)

Involve communities and local authorities/

politicians in planning

Engage in dialogues with other ocean users,

e.g. offshore wind parks, ocean energy,

fishermen, other aquaculture

Standardise

Involve

Engage

Dialogues to maximise positive impacts and minimise risks

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Industrialisation of coastal often

remote regions

Mechanisation/automatisation of

processes, esp. harvesting

EnvironmentalChange

Involve communities in planning,

be willing to listen and adjust concepts

Build consensus and develop standards

Assess environmental impacts,

Share and discuss results

Select appropriate sites

Agree on acceptable levels of change

Involve / Change

Accept?

Assess, share, agree

Remaining Risks

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Visual impact of seaweed farm

Seaweed farms might cause entanglement of marine mammals

Large-scale seaweed farms could be a competition to existing fisheries and other aquaculture

Noise and dirt pollution by mechanised harvesting

Habitat extraction could harm marine fauna

Loss of cultivation equipment might pollute coastlines and beaches

Local Concerns towards large-scale Cultivation

Seaweed farms could lower the recreational value of the sea and coastal areas

Property value might decrease

Cultivated seaweed could be a threat to other native species

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Take Home Messages

Assess and understand social aspects as part of overall sustainability

Engage closely with local/regional stakeholders, including civil society, to include local knowledge and give locals a share in the endeavour

Share your knowledge with wide groups so risks can be avoided and benefits maximised (incl. policy makers at national, regional, EU levels)

Do not rely on current positive perception of seaweed…opinions change quickly!

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This presentation is part of the MacroFuels project. This project has

received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and

innovation programme under grant agreement No 654010

r.clancy@eurida-research.com