“Oceans Could Help End World Hunger by 2030,” WWF Calls

Worldfish Center working in Vietnam and with active programs in Asia and Africa

The World is on a Mission to end World Hunger by the year 2030 and the Oceans could play a major role in the fulfillment of this global dream. World Hunger numbers are directly linked to Global Poverty figures. Ocean´s natural resources -when uptaken sustainably can tackle poverty as well as hunger. The creation of new aquaculture, fish farms, fishing communities and ocean resources developments can create jobs as well as provide nourishment, increase health, improve nourishment and food security and reduce hunger as well as poverty. 

Those in the Aquaculture Industry -a booming industry worth globally billions are looking into new innovations to expand development but to take down these global issues some believe that rather than a large scale new upbeat technological industrial evolution what is needed is a small scale rural familiar gender equal ocean resources global revolution. The concept of small scale rural familiar programs has been proven to be of grand success in sectors of agriculture. Small scale programs not only attend to resources need and environment stress but work both socially as well as productively. Turning these effective small scale models to the ways of Ocean seems to be imminent. 

Thinking Big this time is Acting Small... 

On February 24 IPS reported that UNDP United Nations Development Programme celebrated its 50 Anniversary with a pledge to help implement the UN's post-2015 development agenda aimed at eliminating extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. United Nations has been working with success in the Development Goals -born officially after COP 21 Paris. The Development Goals are those that follow the Millennium Goals and while success has been plentiful more action is needed as global issues evolve and climate change increases vulnerability. 

In this line of work towards Zero Hunger the World has usually focused on agriculture and food systems and for some reason missed out on the full potential of the Ocean and its rich natural resources.

Agriculture problems continue to increase as global farmed and used surface increase. Climate change, use of land, land conflicts, water conflicts and water availability these are just some of the many issues which agricultural faces. While aquaculture and ocean resources do share some issues such as environment and contamination, quotas and climate change they are not bound to other issues such as drought. 

The conclusion that “a profound change of the global food system is needed” if we are to provide for today’s 795 million hungry and the additional 2 billion people expected by 2050 is well agreed on. That the Oceans are part of this profound needed change is still not globally recognized...but some do believe strongly in the vast waters open waters and work relentlessly towards a solution. 

Adding to a revolution which recently saw the addition of names such as HERO X -with their F3 Challenge and the inspiring work of the Worldfish Center now the World Wildlife Fund WWF jumps aboard aquaculture, oceanic resources and the global food demand.  

Steering their own beautiful boat WWF launched the 2 Million USD Global Challenge Blue Economy. WWF says its Challenge can save the Oceans but actually while doing so it can also save many millions under the strings of poverty and world hunger. 

WWF reported on March 1 “Aquaculture is a vital global industry accounting for nearly 50 percent of the seafood we eat. But as seafood farming gains momentum worldwide, we need to ensure it evolves as an environmentally sustainable practice”. 

WWF teamed up with the Australian Department of  Foreign Affairs and Trade, Conservation X Labs and SecondMuse and launched the Blue Economy Challenge. Boosted by the powerful  WWF social platform the Challenge called for innovators, designers, entrepreneurs, businesses, technologists and scientists to get busy driving new solutions.  

WWF Blue Economy has set up three challenges open for anyone worldwide. “The Blue Economy challenge seeks to jumpstart innovations that will revolutionize environmentally sustainable aquaculture in the developing world”. 

“When brought to scale, these innovations will help conserve oceans and marine resources, use existing resources sustainably, combat poverty and hunger, and ensure access to safe, nutritious and sufficient food,” WWF assured that more than 2 million USD will turn the projects selected into reality and action. The Blue Economy Challenges are focused for implementation in the Indian Ocean.

WWF identified three major areas where innovations are needed and created a challenge for each one. The First challenge is to “Rethink Feed for Aquaculture”. What fish are fed has become a major issue for the industry because down to bare basics fish farmed are fed fish and proteins -this has become unsustainable. A replacement is needed to boost the production and make the industry sustainable. WWF aims like the Hero X F3 Challenge for a new “highly nutritional aquaculture feed replacements that matches or improve on the cost and performance of existing feedstock”. Replacing existing feedstock reduces impacts on the natural environment. 

The Second Blue Economy WWF Challenge is to create “New Ocean Products”. There are millions of ocean species but only a handful of these are commercialized in the global food markets. WWF believes that by “creating new ocean products, we can increase the diversity of ocean products available for food security while decreasing aquaculture’s environmental footprint”. 

The Worldfish Center -which has immense success and experience working small scale rural aquaculture and ocean resources World Wide with a focus on Asia and Africa also acknowledges the need for a wider perspective when it comes to which ocean species can be of value in the nourishment of populations in need. The Worldfish Center program in Bangladesh focuses on the local Mola fish to create a productive sector, reduce poverty and hunger and increase health despite the local Mola fish is not a global product in demand. 

The Third -and last Blue Economy WWF Challenge is a price for “Sustainable Design”. WWF calls for innovation in new technology and practices which will increase efficiency and environmental and economic sustainability of aquaculture farms. Supply chain efficiency is also part of the challenge. Aquaculture -as it went industrial increased its use of prime elements. Water, water treatment, fish feedstocks, energy, logistics and supply chain grew and with that growth derailment came. To increase industrial aquaculture new technology is needed to deal with energy, water and water treatment, logistics and other issues which make some projects unsustainable. Small scale programs and low cost efficient ecological solutions are proving to be of interest for the potential to solve as a group the problems that large industrial projects have found and are today limited by. 

“Global demand for seafood is growing and farming seafood can have significant impacts to wild fish and ecosystems,” WWF Vice President for Oceans Brad Ack said. “We need new thinkers and inventors to help us find solutions. We hope this challenge will help us find innovations and new partnerships that lead to durable solutions. If so, we can strengthen food security, ocean health and local economies, all at the same time”. 

WWF challenge will be open and beating online in poise of applications until June 30 this year. WWF will announce the winners in September this year. The challenge is open for anyone.

“The rising demand for fish, combined with unsustainable fishing practices, has put tremendous pressure on wild catches. Aquaculture -has been trying to fill this gap. Aquaculture’s contribution to the total food fish supply has increased from 9 % in 1980 to 48 % in 2011, according to UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization FAO,” News Mongabay reported. 

“Producing...(the global food demand of the 9.6 billion people expected to inhabit the planet by 2050)...will require an increase in agricultural area equal to that of the United States, ...or clearance of the Amazon Basin for agriculture,” Alex Dehgan  -Cofounder of Conservation X Labs told Mongabay News. 

“Our Oceans and in particular aquaculture have the potential to produce a significant proportion of the World’s nutrition. The current aquaculture industry supplies 58% of the fish we eat in the global fish market. However, aquaculture is both economically and environmentally unsustainable, degrading both land and marine habitat...and polluting surrounding ecosystems. We also feed wild caught fish to farmed fish through fish meal, we need to rethink the design of our aquaculture systems and we need to harvest new products from the oceans,” Mr. Dehgan added. 

“Most of the innovations in aquaculture have been created for developed countries, but that isn’t where aquaculture happens. Ninety percent of aquaculture occurs in the developing World where the lack of access to current technologies and capital, coupled with weak regulation, are barriers to change.  People in a number of developing countries in the Indian Ocean Region rely on fish for over half of the animal protein in their diets (Bangladesh, Comoros, Indonesia, Maldives, and Sri Lanka), and this will likely increase with growing populations,” Mr. Dehgan added.

“We are just beginning to glimpse the enormous challenges and opportunities presented to us by oceans -in our case the mighty Indian Ocean,” Julie Bishop MP Minister for Foreign Affairs added. 

“Aquaculture can be the protein source of the future…” Mr. Dehagan ended it.