Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

This project sets out a scalable, seaweed-based development model for coastal regions that delivers employment, improves nutrition, and strengthens local economies. The multiple applications of seaweed can include targeted local needs in food, feed and fertiliser, it can also offer trading benefits for specific pharmaceutical applications or in volumes for biopolymer or biofuel. By anchoring production to local needs, the project addresses food insecurity and malnutrition, potentially feeding, humans, livestock and crops while creating durable livelihood opportunities in underserved coastal communities.

The initiative brings coastal fishers into the seaweed economy, supporting a transition from extractive fishing practices to regenerative ocean farming—shifting from “hunter-gatherers” to “ocean farmers.” Using locally appropriate, low-cost cultivation systems alongside novel, modular micro-processing technologies, communities are enabled to grow and process native seaweed species close to source. This decentralised approach increases the value of raw biomass, overcomes the constraints of remote working and variable skills levels, and ensures that economic benefits remain within rural and coastal areas rather than being lost through the export of unprocessed material.

Seaweed can enhance diets for children and adults, supplying essential minerals, trace elements, fibre, and bioactive compounds that support gut health, immunity, and overall wellbeing. Local processing allows products to be tailored to regional dietary requirements, reducing reliance on imported supplements and externally fortified foods. Complementary applications in animal nutrition improve welfare and productivity, while seaweed-based fertilisers support soil health and reduce dependence on synthetic inputs.

The project is underpinned by a community-based, decentralised seaweed supply chain that is sustainable, equitable, and scalable. Training, cooperative ownership models, and shared-value partnerships build long-term skills, income resilience, and local self-sufficiency. Through collective working, the platform also creates future pathways into alternative sectors, including biopolymers, sustainable packaging, cosmetics, and pharmaceutical compounds.

By unlocking an underutilised marine resource, the project delivers inclusive economic growth, improved nutrition, and environmental stewardship, while positioning participating regions to respond to growing global demand for sustainable, seaweed-derived solutions.

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How Project Affects Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions:

The project has a net positive impact on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through a combination of direct carbon capture, avoided emissions, and system-level efficiencies across food, agriculture, and coastal economies.

1. Direct Carbon Sequestration and Blue Carbon Benefits
Seaweed cultivation actively removes CO₂ from seawater through photosynthesis. While much of this carbon is short-cycle, large-scale and sustained cultivation contributes to blue carbon dynamics by reducing ocean acidification locally and supporting carbon pathways through biomass use, sedimentation, and long-lived products (e.g. biopolymers). Cultivated seaweed also requires no freshwater, arable land, or synthetic fertilisers, avoiding emissions associated with terrestrial crops.

2. Displacement of High-Emission Inputs
The project replaces or reduces reliance on carbon-intensive products:

Food fortification: Substitutes imported, industrially processed supplements and additives with locally produced seaweed ingredients, reducing embodied emissions from manufacturing and transport.

Animal feed: Seaweed-based feed inputs can displace soy and other imported feedstocks linked to deforestation, land-use change, and high embedded emissions. It is also acknowledged that specific seaweed compounds fed to cattle significantly reduces methane emissions. 

Fertilisers: Seaweed fertilisers reduce dependence on synthetic nitrogen fertilisers, whose production is highly energy-intensive and a major source of global GHG emissions.

3. Reduced Transport and Supply Chain Emissions
The decentralised, nearshore processing model significantly lowers transport emissions by processing seaweed close to the point of harvest. Rather than exporting low-value raw biomass over long distances, value is added locally, reducing fuel use, cold-chain requirements, and logistics-related emissions.

4. Regenerative Ocean and Coastal System Effects
Seaweed farms improve marine ecosystem health by enhancing biodiversity and nutrient cycling. Healthier marine systems are more resilient and can indirectly support carbon storage through improved ecological function, including habitat provision and reduced pressure on overfished stocks.

5. Enabling Low-Carbon Rural Economies
By creating local employment and self-sufficient supply chains, the project reduces the need for long-distance commuting, migration for work, and reliance on imported agricultural inputs. Community-scale processing units are designed to be low-energy and compatible with renewable power sources, further lowering operational emissions.

6. Pathway to Long-Term Carbon Lock-In
As the project scales into biopolymers, bio-based materials, and durable goods, a proportion of captured carbon is retained in long-lived products, extending the carbon storage benefit beyond short biological cycles.

Overall Impact
Taken together, the project contributes to GHG mitigation through carbon capture, avoided emissions, and structural changes to food and agricultural systems. While precise carbon accounting will be site- and scale-specific, the model aligns strongly with climate mitigation pathways by delivering low-input production, localised value creation, and substitution of high-emission materials and inputs.

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Impact on Underrepresented Groups:

This project is designed to deliver meaningful impact for underrepresented and marginalised groups by embedding inclusive economic opportunity within a sustainable seaweed value chain, with a particular focus on rural coastal communities and partnerships with African nations.

Across many coastal regions, including in Africa, fishing communities have been disproportionately affected by declining fish stocks, the expansion of industrial fleets, and limited access to alternative livelihoods. At the same time, many communities face persistent food insecurity, with school meal programmes either under-resourced or absent altogether. This project addresses both challenges by enabling coastal communities to cultivate and process native seaweed species for local use in nutritious school meals, animal feed, and soil fertilisers, creating a pathway to healthier diets and improved educational outcomes where formal meal provision may not currently exist.

By deploying low-cost, small-scale cultivation and micro-processing technologies, the project provides communities with practical tools for self-empowerment and local value creation. These decentralised systems are designed to operate at community scale, reducing physical barriers to participation and enabling women and other underrepresented groups to take active roles as operators, managers, and cooperative owners. This is particularly important in contexts where access to capital, land, and formal employment is limited.

Seaweed cultivation also delivers environmental benefits by enhancing marine biodiversity and providing nursery habitats, while offering a resilient supplementary income that reduces dependence on overexploited fisheries. Through knowledge transfer, skills development, and collective ownership models, the project supports a degree of local self-sufficiency, enabling communities to produce food, feed, and fertiliser tailored to local needs.

Overall, the initiative combines nutrition, livelihoods, and environmental stewardship, creating inclusive, community-led systems that improve health outcomes, strengthen rural coastal economies, and empower underrepresented groups to participate fully in the emerging seaweed economy.

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