Current and future food systems must be capable of adapting, mitigating and attenuating climate change while promoting efficient use of scarce natural resources. Aquaculture is a key sector for the economy, development and human well-being contributing 57% of all blue food globally in 2020 and generating over 20 million jobs in rural and peri-urban areas, and is a source of livelihood for billions. Resilience of agricultural landscapes and livelihoods of resource poor farmers, including women and youth, are threatened by land and water access limitations, loss of biodiversity, increased waste (see Figure 1), and limited efficiency in the utilization of available natural resources. Integrated and restorative aquaculture systems can play a crucial role towards increased resilience of agricultural landscapes and livelihoods. These systems including integrated crop fish, livestock fish, shellfish, and integrated multitrophic aquaculture (IMTA) including seaweeds are more environmentally friendly, enhance production, foster efficient management of natural resources, and enhance provision of ecosystem services, including biodiversity conservation and climate change adaptation.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that integrated and restorative aquaculture with circular economy approaches can reduce dependence on external inputs e.g., aquafeed and fertilizer requirements and improve resource-use efficiency, while enhancing essential ecosystem services and reduction of carbon footprints. However, despite decades of promotion, their global expansion is limited by dearth of economic viability data and lack of financial valorisation of these ecosystem services.
In effort to catalyse investments in integrated restorative aquaculture, the World Bank has been undertaking studies to quantify economics of different integrated systems including overall farm level carbon footprint reduction capacity. This data will enable valuation of integrated and restorative ecosystems allowing formulation of appropriate policies and regulations and enhancing public and private investment in aquaculture.
Key words: aquaculture, biodiversity, ecosystem, integration, restorative, investment.