Community-driven business models for seaweed farming: the ‘C-FAARER’ approach

The dominant model for most aquaculture operations is commercially-driven and is increasingly recognized as economically unsustainable in the long-term. In this paper, we outline an approach to identifying, replicating and scaling sustainable community-driven business models in Europe that will attempt to strike a balance between locally sustainable ocean farming operations and the protection and restoration of marine and freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity. Our approach can be applied to a range of coastal applications (nearshore, offshore, etc.), including working collaboratively with other sectors that have mutually beneficial infrastructure in place, such as (but not limited to) offshore renewable energy platforms. The approach will be developed as part of a EC-funded project - Community-driven Farming for the Atlantic and Arctic Sea basins through REgeneRative aquaculture (C-FAARER).