Gracie White1,2
1Conservation International Ventures, Arlington, United States, 2Konservasi Indonesia, , Indonesia
Conservation International Ventures is a philanthropically capitalized, impact-first, venture fund – seeking to provide flexible financing for startups in emerging markets pioneering solutions that benefit people and planet. CI Ventures is working with the Global Fund for Coral Reefs, a blended finance instrument to mobilize action and resources to protect and restore coral reef ecosystems, to develop sustainable alternative livelihoods within the Coral Triangle through seaweed farming.
The MMAF have targeted a 25% increase above 2019 seaweed production volumes by 2024, with a large proportion of growth expected from existing and new farming areas within NTT. To meet these targets, MMAF have announced plans to develop a network of “seaweed villages” across Eastern Indonesia, with East Sumba as one of two inaugural priority sites being launched in 2022. The government’s “seaweed village” strategy advocates for a holistic approach to sector development, linking private companies, funding institutions and a range of “stakeholders including the government, academicians, business operators, media and the public.
Our team is working to build a more robust understanding of the underlying factors that influence seaweed cultivation and management behaviors through a series of landscape assessments; socioeconomic, industry and commercial, and environmental baseline assessments. These research activities are expected to strengthen the foundation for meaningful program interventions and investments that align reef protection and economic incentives through:
1) directly addressing local and industry-scale drivers of reef degradation;
2) generating meaningful, durable reef-positive income, livelihood, and employment benefits;
3) achieving broad-scale impact through business model replication or commercial scaling
Through first addressing fundamental science, data and information gaps related to coral reef-macroalgae farming interactions, we can then deploy funding into the interventions across the entire value chain most effective in promoting sustainable and equitable growth of the Indonesian seaweed industry. By the time of the International Seaweed Symposium, the three landscape assessment studies will be 50% complete, and we will be able to comment on progress to date, discuss coral reef-macroalgae impact indicators, map out key interventions across the seaweed value chain, as well as share progress from current investments in the sector.