Wetlands: The forgotten ecosystems.
We are looking back to an inspiring session with Yanik Nyberg of Seawater Solutions at our Convention.
Seawater Solutions is a Scottish agri-environmental startup that is redeveloping underutilized degraded land to create wetland ecosystems. In 2018 they started their first pilot site in Scotland. Yanik is describing their journey to create this artificial wetland as an adventure, including rescuing solar panels out of the sea.
Currently, they have projects around the world, such as in Malawi, Namibia, Ghana, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. In every new country they have to adapt their approach to the specific terrains and climate conditions, but always with the focus on creating synergy between the projects and solutions for climate adaptation.
For Yanik, salt marshes, which can be found all over the world, are the “silver bullets” to combat climate change. Wetlands have many environmental benefits, such as acting as natural sea defenses and storing up to 30 times more carbon than the rainforest. Moreover, they serve as a habitat for many wildlife species and they can produce highly nutritious food within them.
So why saltwater farming ? Over ⅓ of the world’s soil is heavily degraded. This is not an exclusive problem for countries on the African continent, it is also a phenomenon happening in European countries.
Degraded land often leads to salinization, in which groundwater is brought up due to higher rates of evaporation. This process leaves often salt on top of the ground.
That urges the need for solutions and methods for how farming will still be possible with less rainwater and less water retention soils or even without exploiting water resources. Unfortunately, there are currently just very few solutions that are tackling this problem.
Seawater Solutions is providing one nature-based solution by turning degraded land into wetlands. Wetland ecosystems can be found all over the world. They are the guardians of the borders between the sea and the land. But they have been destroyed on a fast level for urban development, agriculture, aquaculture, or grazing areas. The loss of these important ecosystems is increasing the risks of flooding and erosion, which makes coastal communities even more vulnerable to climate hazards.
How does their farm model work? Ideally, seawater is being pumped into the farm directly into the commercial halophyte cultivation using renewable energy. This creates an artificial wetland, which acts as a remediator for polluted water. Their farming model is increasing the organic matter of degraded soil and is therefore revitalizing.
Intensive aquaculture farms are creating lots of wastewater, which is creating increasing diseases and blue algae. Here are the biofiltration models key. This wastewater can be remediated with the halophytes, acts as a biofertilizer to produce the crops, and produces food again. A perfect circular system.
What can halophytes be used for?
The sea vegetable market increased its value over the years and more people and gastronomies are creating wonderful dishes with plants like samphire or sea aster in their kitchens. Yanik is describing the diversity of these plants.There are 300 edible salt marsh and wetland species exclusively grown with seawater but currently, we are just familiar with a few of them.
Saline plants can not only produce food, they also can be used to create textiles, biofuels, and cosmetics. With Seawater Solutions, Yanik is focusing right now on the aquaculture feed component. Halophytes can be a fish feed supplement, which reduces the need for environmentally unsustainable fish feed and refers to 70 % of conventional aquaculture production costs.
Especially for coastal communities these techniques and systems can be highly beneficial. Facing coastal erosion, flooding, food insecurity, and water pollution, this can be a solution for an alternative source of livelihood, which simultaneously offers protection for their environment and increases coastal protection.
Furthermore, the carbon sequestration aspect of wetlands, being incredible blue carbon sinks, is becoming a center of their R&D and future operations.
This year is very exciting for Seawater Solution, where they have high ambitions. In their project in Ghana they are developing silvo aquaculture sites. This is a nature-based solutions approach to produce sustainable shrimp farms without harming the environment — in fact conserving important ecosystems such as Mangroves. Furthermore, they are starting a big project in Namibia, where they want to turn the desert green. Soon they will start a project in the south of Spain with a three Michelin star restaurant. Soon they will start a project in the South of Spain with a three Michelin star restaurant. Stay tuned on their exciting projects on their website.
We thank Yanik for being part of our Convention and if you want to learn more about Seawater Solutions and their techniques dive into the full interview:
What is Holy Tisch?
Holy Tisch is a platform for innovators, change agents and all those working towards a better food system. As this can only work with united forces, Holy Tisch connects people from all parts of the ecosystem: producers, start-ups, investors, trade, brands, chefs, gastronomes, NGOs and the media.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
