The Government of Zambia has partnered with the World Bank, including the  AquaInvest Platform , funded by  PROBLUE , a multidonor trust fund administered by the World Bank, to carry out strategic assessment of aquaculture development priorities. Mapping aquaculture suitability of Zambia enables determination of the country’s full potential and opens possibility to plan for sector growth. Aquaculture spatial planning serves as a critical building block in Zambia's overall strategic objectives to alleviate poverty, create livelihoods and jobs around aquaculture,  conserve biodiversity and reduce climate change impacts.

While developing the aquaculture regulatory framework, special attention to the instruments of resolving conflicts between competing usage of finite natural resources is critical. Spatial planning is the key among such instruments. Thus, to guide new investments in the aquaculture sector, the assessment identified aquaculture suitability zones in the country, using the Multi-Criteria Evaluation, a well-tested methodology for aquaculture site selection and spatial planning studies. It specifies, creates, and aggregates comprehensive sets of evaluation criteria which inform the decision-making process (see specific criteria applied to situation in Zambia below).

The resulting zoning is available in format allowing the development of public-facing applications, such as the Map of Potential Aquaculture Areas launched by  Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock , and integration with initiatives like the  2023 National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy (NFAP) . The information helps for policy makers, public officials, and private sector representatives to save time and resources while identifying optimal sites for new aquaculture enterprises.

Zambia Aquaculture Sector

With high levels of poverty ( 64.3% of population living on less than US$2.15 a day in 2022 ), rural poverty, and food insecurity ( 32.1% of total population in 2022 ) Zambia depends on the economic opportunities provided by its natural resources. The country’s water bodies and wetlands, covering  1.6%  and  19%  of its territory,  provide it with reliable resources for fisheries and aquaculture.

According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), fisheries and aquaculture contribute  approximately 2% of Zambia's GDP, with fish accounting for 30% of the national dietary animal protein . Fish and seafood consumption in Zambia remains at  approximately 13 kg per person annually  (2017-2019), below the  global average of 20.4 kg . Increasing aquaculture production could help address food insecurity, which particularly affects children. In 2022, among Zambian children under 5 years old,  the prevalence of wasting was at 4.2% and of stunting at 31.4% .

 According to FAO , total aquaculture and fisheries production in Zambia reached 185,076 tons in 2022, with aquaculture contributing 41%—a significant increase from 13% a decade ago. Fast growth in aquaculture has driven the 84% increase in aquatic products output in Zambia since 2012.

Please visit: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/be47e93d7bc04de8bf59eb4451967fba 

The Government of Zambia has partnered with the World Bank, including the  AquaInvest Platform , funded by  PROBLUE , a multidonor trust fund administered by the World Bank, to carry out strategic assessment of aquaculture development priorities. Mapping aquaculture suitability of Zambia enables determination of the country’s full potential and opens possibility to plan for sector growth. Aquaculture spatial planning serves as a critical building block in Zambia's overall strategic objectives to alleviate poverty, create livelihoods and jobs around aquaculture,  conserve biodiversity and reduce climate change impacts.

While developing the aquaculture regulatory framework, special attention to the instruments of resolving conflicts between competing usage of finite natural resources is critical. Spatial planning is the key among such instruments. Thus, to guide new investments in the aquaculture sector, the assessment identified aquaculture suitability zones in the country, using the Multi-Criteria Evaluation, a well-tested methodology for aquaculture site selection and spatial planning studies. It specifies, creates, and aggregates comprehensive sets of evaluation criteria which inform the decision-making process (see specific criteria applied to situation in Zambia below).

The resulting zoning is available in format allowing the development of public-facing applications, such as the Map of Potential Aquaculture Areas launched by  Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock , and integration with initiatives like the  2023 National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy (NFAP) . The information helps for policy makers, public officials, and private sector representatives to save time and resources while identifying optimal sites for new aquaculture enterprises.

Zambia Aquaculture Sector

With high levels of poverty ( 64.3% of population living on less than US$2.15 a day in 2022 ), rural poverty, and food insecurity ( 32.1% of total population in 2022 ) Zambia depends on the economic opportunities provided by its natural resources. The country’s water bodies and wetlands, covering  1.6%  and  19%  of its territory,  provide it with reliable resources for fisheries and aquaculture.

According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), fisheries and aquaculture contribute  approximately 2% of Zambia's GDP, with fish accounting for 30% of the national dietary animal protein . Fish and seafood consumption in Zambia remains at  approximately 13 kg per person annually  (2017-2019), below the  global average of 20.4 kg . Increasing aquaculture production could help address food insecurity, which particularly affects children. In 2022, among Zambian children under 5 years old,  the prevalence of wasting was at 4.2% and of stunting at 31.4% .

 According to FAO , total aquaculture and fisheries production in Zambia reached 185,076 tons in 2022, with aquaculture contributing 41%—a significant increase from 13% a decade ago. Fast growth in aquaculture has driven the 84% increase in aquatic products output in Zambia since 2012.

Please visit: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/be47e93d7bc04de8bf59eb4451967fba 

The Government of Zambia has partnered with the World Bank, including the  AquaInvest Platform , funded by  PROBLUE , a multidonor trust fund administered by the World Bank, to carry out strategic assessment of aquaculture development priorities. Mapping aquaculture suitability of Zambia enables determination of the country’s full potential and opens possibility to plan for sector growth. Aquaculture spatial planning serves as a critical building block in Zambia's overall strategic objectives to alleviate poverty, create livelihoods and jobs around aquaculture,  conserve biodiversity and reduce climate change impacts.

While developing the aquaculture regulatory framework, special attention to the instruments of resolving conflicts between competing usage of finite natural resources is critical. Spatial planning is the key among such instruments. Thus, to guide new investments in the aquaculture sector, the assessment identified aquaculture suitability zones in the country, using the Multi-Criteria Evaluation, a well-tested methodology for aquaculture site selection and spatial planning studies. It specifies, creates, and aggregates comprehensive sets of evaluation criteria which inform the decision-making process (see specific criteria applied to situation in Zambia below).

The resulting zoning is available in format allowing the development of public-facing applications, such as the Map of Potential Aquaculture Areas launched by  Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock , and integration with initiatives like the  2023 National Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy (NFAP) . The information helps for policy makers, public officials, and private sector representatives to save time and resources while identifying optimal sites for new aquaculture enterprises.

Zambia Aquaculture Sector

With high levels of poverty ( 64.3% of population living on less than US$2.15 a day in 2022 ), rural poverty, and food insecurity ( 32.1% of total population in 2022 ) Zambia depends on the economic opportunities provided by its natural resources. The country’s water bodies and wetlands, covering  1.6%  and  19%  of its territory,  provide it with reliable resources for fisheries and aquaculture.

According to Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), fisheries and aquaculture contribute  approximately 2% of Zambia's GDP, with fish accounting for 30% of the national dietary animal protein . Fish and seafood consumption in Zambia remains at  approximately 13 kg per person annually  (2017-2019), below the  global average of 20.4 kg . Increasing aquaculture production could help address food insecurity, which particularly affects children. In 2022, among Zambian children under 5 years old,  the prevalence of wasting was at 4.2% and of stunting at 31.4% .

 According to FAO , total aquaculture and fisheries production in Zambia reached 185,076 tons in 2022, with aquaculture contributing 41%—a significant increase from 13% a decade ago. Fast growth in aquaculture has driven the 84% increase in aquatic products output in Zambia since 2012.

To learn more about the Mapping aquaculture suitability in Zambia

Please visit: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/be47e93d7bc04de8bf59eb4451967fba 

Join on Webex

This webinar will focus on artemia, a small brine shrimp found naturally in hypersaline ecosystems – salt lakes, salt pans and salt works across the world. Presenters will explain artemia’s unique role in the aquatic ecosystem and explore ways for future investment opportunities.

The shrimp has rare biological characteristics that enable it to thrive in saline environments under climate change stress, and special nutritional properties that have made it an essential product for fish and shrimp hatchery production across the world, contributing directly to the sustainable production of over 10 million tons of high-value aquaculture products. Artemia is also emerging as a unique product with applications beyond aquaculture hatcheries, and its potential in animal and human food production in climate-stressed ecosystems. 

With the rising global demand for protein, aquaculture has become the dominant provider of sustainable seafood. Just as in terrestrial farming, sustainable aquaculture depends on maintaining the health and welfare of aquatic animals. Animal welfare in aquaculture is important for ethical, environmental, and economic reasons. 
Join us for a truly exciting session to learn how animal welfare in aquaculture can increase sustainability and productivity, and drive investments. This event will equip you with practical tools and resources available for different stakeholders to contribute to the implementation, monitoring, and assessment of animal welfare in aquaculture across the food supply chain. 
Experts from FAI, will present their framework for animal welfare, encompassing nutrition, physical environment, health, and behavior. This framework is used to educate and empower entrepreneurs and managers across the world to improve welfare and achieve better production outcomes in diverse aquatic species including tilapia, shrimp, and carp. The audience will also hear about different welfare journeys, challenges, and opportunities by companies from a wide range of geographies represented by Brazil, Thailand, Honduras and Egypt.

The World Bank’s AquaInvest Platform, supported by PROBLUE, has developed innovative tools, which utilize AI- and geospatial-based decision support technologies, and can make a difference in good governance and investment in aquaculture. 

Developed in collaboration with Longline Environment, these versatile tools can lay the data-driven foundations for encouraging investment in the aquaculture sector in low- and lower-middle-income countries, ultimately bolstering employment and subsequent taxable income by using aquaculture as a responsible driver of sustainable growth.

Join us to learn about these tools and their application and to hear directly from commercial and NGO beneficiaries about how they see the value of such tools in the coming years.

Join our virtual inaugural e-learning series to learn about the burgeoning global seaweed sector. In four live sessions, we’ll explore innovative practices and emerging markets across sectors, showing how the public, private, and research sectors contribute to thriving value chains.

Register here: Register Here

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Nature-based climate solutions in the world's oceans can play an important role in conservation and carbon abatement efforts worldwide.

Assessing blue carbon solutions

McKinsey’s new report,Blue Carbon: The potential of coastal and economic climate action, sizes blue carbon NBS and measures their impacts, costs, and likely access to future funding. It highlights the latest scientific research and leverages McKinsey analysis to estimate abatement or conservation potential on a 2050 timeline. Deep dives on kelp reforestation and bottom trawling show how economies of scale in these emerging solutions could help reduce costs.

If fully implemented, the established class of solutions would offer 0.4 to 1.2 metric gigatons (Gt) of annual CO2 abatement, or between 1 and 3 percent of total current annual emissions (Exhibit 1). That potential jumps to approximately 3 GtCO2 of annual abatement (about 7 percent of total current annual emissions) if the solutions in the emerging category, such as large-scale seaweed farming and bottom-trawling management, were to be fully confirmed and implemented. Nascent solutions might add another 1 to 2 GtCO2 of annual abatement potential in the longer term, but the science remains highly uncertain. To put these numbers into context, annual human emissions are currently around 40 GtCO2.

Please visit the website to read the full article:

McKinsey & Company (Julien Claes, Duko Hopman, Gualtiero Jaeger, and Matt Rogers), 2022, Blue carbon: The potential of coastal and oceanic climate action, available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/sustainability/our-insights/blue-carbon-the-potential-of-coastal-and-oceanic-climate-action

Connection Details https://worldbankgroup.zoom.us/j/92142565320?pwd=b7jwqOhaNzSOsVzFi2wjb4V8eEUJga.1

Meeting ID: 921 4256 5320    Passcode: $9%aV23Xij

Seaweed covers around 3.4 million square kilometres of ocean area worldwide and stores an estimated 175 million tons  of carbon annually – equivalent to 10% of the emissions from all cars in the world. To many scientists,  seaweed could join the likes of mangroves and wetlands to become a vital tool in climate change mitigation efforts.

The seaweed industry brims with untapped potential extending far beyond its current uses and contributing to the human diet, aquaculture feed, and hydrocolloid thickening agents. The World Bank estimates growth potential could be as much as US$11.8 billion by 2030.

In this webinar, experts from the Republic of Korea will share perspectives on the country’s highly successful seaweed industry and potential environmental benefits, providing examples of how seaweed can deliver sustainable solutions for a livable planet for future generations.

Joined by speakers from leading research universities and public research think-tanks, this webinar will cover the following topics:

• The role of seaweed in blue carbon storage
• The preservation of ecological diversity of seaweed species
• The role of seaweed forests in blue carbon storage

Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) technology which integrates seaweed into a biofloc system to manage water quality.

Aquaculture is predicted to supply the majority of aquatic dietary protein by 2050. For aquaculture to deliver significantly enhanced volumes of food in a sustainable manner, appropriate account needs to be taken of its impacts on environmental integrity, farmed organism health and welfare, and human health. Here, we explore increased aquaculture production through the One Health lens and define a set of success metrics — underpinned by evidence, policy and legislation — that must be embedded into aquaculture sustainability. We provide a framework for defining, monitoring and averting potential negative impacts of enhanced production — and consider interactions with land-based food systems. These metrics will inform national and international science and policy strategies to support improved aquatic food system design.

Stentiford, G.D., Bateman, I.J., Hinchliffe, S.J. et al. Sustainable aquaculture through the One Health lens. Nat Food 1, 468–474 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-020-0127-5

Please visit the website to read the full article:

Sustainable aquaculture through the One Health lens | Nature Food