We want to provide a Seaweed-based alternatives to address the decline in fishery resources, develop the local and national economy, and at the same time solve the plastic pollution problem
Brief history of the development of seaweed farming in Madagascar
Seaweed farming in Madagascar began in 1991 through the initiative of IH.SM, in partnership with the company BIOMAD. The species cultivated is the red seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii, also known by its common name Cottonii. Following a storm in 1992, the plantations were destroyed, and the activity was halted until 1996. In September 1997, seaweed farming was relaunched in the southwest region of Madagascar, but the results were mixed, and the activity did not develop further.
Seaweed farming in Madagascar began in 1991 through the initiative of IH.SM, in partnership with the company BIOMAD. The species cultivated is the red seaweed Kappaphycus alvarezii, also known by its common name Cottonii. Following a storm in 1992, the plantations were destroyed, and the activity was halted until 1996. In September 1997, seaweed farming was relaunched in the southwest region of Madagascar, but the results were mixed, and the activity did not develop further. In 1998, a new strain of Cottonii from Zanzibar (originally from the Philippines) was introduced to Madagascar, then cultivated at Nosy Ankao (an island in northeastern Madagascar) by the company Ibis Madagascar. This company produced 80 tons of dried Cottonii in 2000, reaching 1,645 tons by 2009. However, the Epiphytic Filamentous Algal Disease (EFAD) emerged, causing a 50% drop in production in 2010, which discouraged farmers, leading to the company’s closure in 2011.
In the southwest of Madagascar, the company Copefrito of Toliara launched Cottonii production in 2010. From this first company, Ocean Farmers emerged in early 2017, a private company exclusively focused on the export of dried seaweed. Ocean Farmers is currently the largest company in the seaweed sector in Madagascar, producing and exporting around 1,000 tons of dried seaweed in 2017. The company works closely with village communities (seaweed farmers), where 1,700 households (about 3,500 villagers) are now involved in seaweed farming across several dozen villages (Copefrito had 164 villagers in 2010).
We assess plastic waste in the marine environment
Plastic pollution has been a major global concern for several decades, affecting both the environment and living organisms. Bioplastics offer a better alternative for sustainable environmental management by replacing petroleum-based plastics. Many projects have focused on producing bioplastics from renewable resources available in each country. In this context, research on producing films from marine red algae (Cottonii and Spinosum) was initiated to utilize the available seaweed resources in Madagascar as part of the “Bioplastics and Village Seaweed Farming” project. However, as little information on the state of this pollution is available for Madagascar, the current study on the assessment of plastic waste in the marine environment was also included in the project.
Plastic pollution has been a major global concern for several decades, affecting both the environment and living organisms. Bioplastics offer a better alternative for sustainable environmental management by replacing petroleum-based plastics. Many projects have focused on producing bioplastics from renewable resources available in each country. In this context, research on producing films from marine red algae (Cottonii and Spinosum) was initiated to utilize the available seaweed resources in Madagascar as part of the “Bioplastics and Village Seaweed Farming” project. However, as little information on the state of this pollution is available for Madagascar, the current study on the assessment of plastic waste in the marine environment was also included in the project. This study involves evaluating marine pollution, specifically assessing the state of pollution in the study area (southwestern Madagascar). It aims to characterize plastic waste in marine habitats (areas where debris is dumped) and study the bioaccumulation of plastics in marine animals likely to ingest microplastics (such as holothurians and fish). The information from this study will help establish a database on plastic pollution for Madagascar and identify future research avenues on the effects of microplastics on marine organisms. Understanding the distribution and accumulation of plastic materials in different ecosystems will help determine the necessary measures for managing plastic waste to ensure environmental sustainability and human health. The study focuses on four main areas: i) characterization of macro-debris in the marine and coastal ecosystems of southwestern Madagascar; ii) differentiation between plastic and organic microparticles, iii) characterization of microplastics in the marine and coastal ecosystems of southwestern Madagascar; and iv) ingestion of microplastics by sea cucumbers, bivalves, and fish in southwestern Madagascar.
For macro-debris, collecting, sorting, and characterizing waste on beaches and mangroves at each of the sites concerned (Sarodrano, Andrevo, and Toliara) are the main field activities. According to the results, macroplastics are more abundant than other types of waste (such as fabric, metal, paper, and glass) accumulated in the habitats of these three sites. In the mangroves, plastics make up 70% of the waste. These debris originate from domestic production, fishing gear, immersion activities, and aquaculture activities (seaweed and sea cucumber farming). For microplastics, laboratory work (including extraction, identification, and characterization of samples) took up a significant portion of the study. Fieldwork consisted of collecting sediment and seawater samples from the concerned habitats and collecting selected species of fish, bivalves, and holothurians from pirogue vessels. After data processing, it was confirmed that the extracted particles were primarily (over 50%) filamentous and pigmented. However, a difference in the perception of microfilaments among observers was noted: all observers had the same perception for 45% of the extracted particles and different perceptions for 55%. Observers are at risk of underestimating the number of identified microplastics. EDX analysis seems to allow for differentiation between plastic and organic microfilaments. This is why the present study suggests using EDX to determine the error in quantifying previously identified plastic microfilaments. Although this does not prevent confirming that microplastics are accumulating in sediments (on beaches, in mangroves, and on the seabed in aquaculture areas), seawater, and marine organisms (through ingestion) collected from the study sites.
Production of seaweed-based bioplastic - the first results
The two species of red algae (Kappaphycus alvarezii, also known as Cottonii, and Euchema denticulatum, also known as Spinosum) cultivated in the southwestern region of Madagascar were used to produce bioplastic for making mulching film.
The two species of red algae (Kappaphycus alvarezii, also known as Cottonii, and Euchema denticulatum, also known as Spinosum) cultivated in the southwestern region of Madagascar were used to produce bioplastic for making mulching film. First, blends of Polybutylene adipate co-terephthalate (PBAT) with red algae powder were prepared. The algae content varied at 10%, 20%, and 50% for each species. Then, maleic anhydride (3%) was grafted onto the PBAT (97%) skeleton using luperox as a radical initiator, to improve the interfacial adhesion between the copolymer and the red algae as well as the mechanical properties of the blends. A 10% maleic anhydride-grafted PBAT (PBAT-g-AM) was mixed with 70% pure PBAT and 20% red algae.
The tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (EB) of the obtained films decrease as the proportion of red algae increases. Pure PBAT has an EB of 524% and a TS of 19 MPa. Adding 10% red algae reduces the EB and TS to 171% (Cottonii) and 341% (Spinosum), and 14 MPa (Cottonii) and 13 MPa (Spinosum), respectively. However, the Young’s modulus (YM) value increases with the red algae content. With the addition of PBAT-g-AM, the EB improved for the 70% PBAT/10% PBAT-g-AM/20% Cottonii blend (237%) compared to the 80% PBAT/20% Cottonii blend (142%) (without grafted PBAT). Similarly, the TS also increased from 9 MPa (90% PBAT/20% Cottonii) to 11 MPa (70% PBAT/10% PBAT-g-AM/20% Cottonii). However, the EB and TS values decreased for the 70% PBAT/10% PBAT-g-AM/20% Spinosum blend.
The bioplastic obtained with the PBAT/red algae blend is less flexible and less resistant with the increase in red algae content. But compared to films made with LDPE, the mechanical properties of the blends are still better with 10% red algae and are similar with 20% red algae.
Study of the Potential Socio-Economic and Environmental Contributions of Valorizing the Cultivation of Kappaphycus alvarezii for Plastic Production in Madagascar.
The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach is the ability of a project or a business to balance achieving optimal profit, providing social benefits, and ensuring environmental sustainability (Elkington, 1999). Despite extensive global debates over sustainability in the past three decades, every five years, a global expedition assesses plastic pollution. The latest expedition from 2010-2015 reported 8 million tons of plastics entering the Ocean, harming marine biodiversity (Jambeck et al., 2015). In island countries like Madagascar, fishing remains one of the main livelihoods for coastal communities (FAO, 2021). Therefore, beyond fishing, it is imperative to undertake environmentally friendly revenue-generating activities. In the past decade, in southwestern Madagascar, a partnership between a local firm and the indigenous community has launched the cultivation of “Kappaphycus alvarezii” seaweed, which is currently intended for bulk export. This research aims to study the potential socio-economic and environmental contributions of valorizing this species for plastic production in Madagascar.
The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) approach is the ability of a project or a business to balance achieving optimal profit, providing social benefits, and ensuring environmental sustainability (Elkington, 1999). Despite extensive global debates over sustainability in the past three decades, every five years, a global expedition assesses plastic pollution. The latest expedition from 2010-2015 reported 8 million tons of plastics entering the Ocean, harming marine biodiversity (Jambeck et al., 2015). In island countries like Madagascar, fishing remains one of the main livelihoods for coastal communities (FAO, 2021). Therefore, beyond fishing, it is imperative to undertake environmentally friendly revenue-generating activities. In the past decade, in southwestern Madagascar, a partnership between a local firm and the indigenous community has launched the cultivation of “Kappaphycus alvarezii” seaweed, which is currently intended for bulk export. This research aims to study the potential socio-economic and environmental contributions of valorizing this species for plastic production in Madagascar.
To this end, this thesis is divided into four main parts:
I) Through a systematic approach designed by the MIT team, we attempted to understand how innovation operates within a defined geographic space and in a developing country. Based on institutional foundations such as the rule of law, property rights protection, labor and trade freedom, transparency, and a favorable entrepreneurial climate, two twin capacities can coexist: innovative capacity (I-cap) and entrepreneurial capacity (E-cap). On one hand, they are twins in that the components are similar, including human capital, financing, infrastructure, demand, and cultural and incentive factors. On the other hand, they differ in their specifics. The first (I-cap) involves a city, region, or area’s ability to develop new solutions that have impacts starting from the consideration of an existing case. Impacts include not only the economy but also social and environmental aspects. This pertains to R&D in sciences and technologies, products, or services that will truly address existential problems. The second (E-cap) focuses on a subset of general entrepreneurial capacity and the conditions for starting businesses. Furthermore, the MIT model identifies five main stakeholders who interact concurrently to activate these capacities: Universities – Entrepreneurs – Funding sources (Venture Capital) – Large firms – Government. With institutional foundations and the development of capacities (I-cap & E-cap) through stakeholders, an area, city, or region can identify its advantages compared to other areas/regions/cities and build on them to have impacts (Budden et al., 2019; Budden & Murray, 2019a, 2019b).
By applying this theory to the Malagasy context and using collected data, the government can promote the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem through tax rates, incentive tax provisions facilitating the growth phase of new businesses, and reducing bureaucratic paperwork. Additionally, the government should adopt flexible economic policies that account for both cyclical and structural situations as well as efforts in transparency and anti-corruption. By applying the theory to the southwestern region, we have identified that it has the most favorable maritime conditions among Sub-Saharan Africa to exploit fisheries (protective reef barrier, available maritime space, suitable salinity level, adequate temperature variation). Moreover, the region has a perfect synergy of the main stakeholders needed to create an innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem. First, the Institut Halieutique et des Sciences Marines (IHSM) provides expertise, researchers, and engineers useful for both R&D and regional human resources. Second, a coastal community with an ancestral culture linked to maritime activities. This makes the community dynamically engaged and motivated for entrepreneurial activities related to mariculture and marine biodiversity promotion. It also collaborates with local NGOs and associations for co-management and conservation of maritime spaces. Third, a set of businesses operating in the fisheries and mariculture sectors. Practicing social entrepreneurship, these businesses cooperate with the community by providing equipment and technical support, while the community commits to providing seaweed and fish production (fish, octopus, squid, lobsters, mussels). Beyond economic and social aspects and considering global climate constraints, these first three categories of actors engage in a sustainable and conservative approach. Fourth, the Government is represented at two levels. The first level includes all ministries (Fisheries, Economy and Finance, Trade and Industry, Security) responsible for implementing the general state policy and sectoral policies. The second level is represented by the Regional Governorate which oversees good governance, democracy, and social peace at the local level.
In response to the need for an alternative revenue-generating activity beyond fishing and considering gender aspects, these actors have developed the seaweed cultivation sector. Aiming for economic valorization of seaweeds and contributing to sustainable development, specifically to reduce plastic pollution, CO2 emissions, and promote marine biodiversity, research is ongoing to develop algae-based and biodegradable plastics in Madagascar. This innovation is made possible through collaboration between Universities (IHSM, UMONS, ULiège) and support from ARES for R&D, with contributions from the southwestern coastal community and both governments (Belgian and Malagasy). The aspect of financing (venture capital) remains to be explored. Therefore, the next steps of this work will involve analyzing three aspects of the project: economic viability, social feasibility, and environmental sustainability.
II) Nowadays, developing environmentally respectful entrepreneurial activities means analyzing their beneficial contributions to maintaining or promoting the environment where they are established. In the specific case of seaweed cultivation and within the scope of this work, this approach has been adopted by employing ecosystem services and biodiversity assessment frameworks from the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) and the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (Kumar, 2012; TEEB, 2012). These approaches rely on analyzing ecosystem services provided by biological resources that could contribute to improving human well-being (directly or indirectly) through four axes as well as the potential contributions of these resources to promoting surrounding biodiversity. These include provisioning services, regulating services, habitat or maintenance services, and cultural services. For the seaweeds studied in this work, provisioning services refer to their potential use as medicinal resources, raw materials for cosmetics – pharmaceuticals, and agro-food industries. Regulating services describe the resources’ capacity to sequester carbon dioxide through photosynthesis, their ability to filter waters and remove harmful nutrients (heavy metals, nitrogen, phosphorus). Habitat and maintenance services simply refer to the capacity of biological resources to house other biological species (fauna or flora). Cultural services reflect the link between human society and the studied biological resources (tourism, employment, lifestyle, recreational landscape…). For provisioning, our research indicates that “Kappaphycus alvarezii” seaweeds are primarily used to extract carrageenan for its gelling, emulsifying, and thickening properties. Carrageenan is used in toothpaste, cosmetics, ice cream, animal feed supplements, and pharmaceuticals (Alleway et al., 2019; Kim et al., 2017; Mantri et al., 2017). Specifically, this seaweed is used to make thin biodegradable film (semi-refined) (Ghosh et al. 2006 – p14). Consumed as a drink, it also provides nutrients rich in potassium (2500 to 5000 mg/L), magnesium (750 to 1250 mg/L), calcium (250 to 350 mg/L), zinc (3 to 6 mg/L), iron (50 to 210 mg/L), and other elements (sodium, iodine, manganese, thiamine, riboflavin…) (Ghosh et al. 2008 – p14). Our field surveys revealed that this seaweed is locally used as a side dish cooked with beans, sometimes as a salad, and occasionally as jam. Rarely, it is also used as an antiseptic in powdered form for wounds. For regulation, considering global seaweed production, on average, Kappaphycus and Euchema seaweeds contain 29% carbon dioxide and 1.7% nitrogen (Kim et al., 2017). According to FAO in 2015, over 120 million tons of fertilizers were used worldwide, with 15 to 30% ending up in the ocean. Bjerregaard et al. (2016) stated that seaweed cultivation alone could absorb about 30% of nitrogen induced by these fertilizers by cultivating only seaweed covering 0.03% of ocean surface, producing around 500 million tons, wet weight. Regarding heavy metal capture, Kappaphycus and Euchema seaweeds have absorption capacities for Cadmium (3.064mg/100g f.wt), Cobalt (3.365mg/100g f.wt), and Chromium (2.799mg/100 mg f.wt) (Suresh Kumar et al., 2007). For habitat, our data collection from seaweed cultivation sites compared to similar environments shows the richness, fidelity, and near abundance of fish species “Lethrinus harak” (edible and highly commercialized), “Cheilodipterus macrodon” and “Heniochus acuminatus” in seaweed cultivation areas. In terms of macroinvertebrate presence, four categories were noted on observation sites (crustaceans, gastropods, bivalves, and echinoderms). For example, within the Mahafaly Landscape – CR Anakao, in terms of species richness, echinoderms are the most diverse with 12 inventoried species, followed by gastropods with 9 species recorded. Bivalves and crustaceans have four and three inventoried species, respectively. Finally, for cultural services, seaweed cultivation is a complementary livelihood activity to fishing spread over more than 40 villages in the southwestern region with over 2500 farming households, predominantly women.
III) Furthermore, it is hypothesized that the ecosystem services provided by seaweed cultivation would directly or indirectly contribute to improving the well-being of farming communities. In the 21st century context of a knowledge society, it has become crucial to address and respect various aspects of sustainability. In a broad sense, sustainability can be achieved if project developers address the interconnected needs for the protection and respect of human beings and ecosystems. This includes the social aspect, which encompasses direct and indirect impacts on stakeholders in terms of improving living conditions. As such, it is important to make optimal use of the generated seaweed in order to effectively minimize environmental impacts. This involves reducing the use of non-renewable resources, applying a precautionary approach, and respecting the principle of sustainability. Since 2009, sustainable development has been promoted within the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement for climate change. A series of targets and indicators were adopted by countries to address the challenges and gaps identified in the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). To this end, economic actors, including local communities, have been required to act on both fronts: improving living conditions and minimizing the environmental footprint. To facilitate stakeholder involvement in sustainable development, it is essential to identify key sustainability indicators for assessing a project or activity. The sustainability indicators of a project are defined based on dimensions such as socio-economic impact, environmental impacts, and innovation. For this work, the following indicators are proposed:
i. Socio-economic impact indicators: Employment opportunities, wages, income generated from the activity, benefits to surrounding communities, local development contributions, and contributions to gender equity.
ii. Environmental impact indicators: Reductions in plastic use and greenhouse gas emissions, quantities of heavy metals captured, quantities of nutrients removed, and maintenance of marine biodiversity.
iii. Innovation indicators: Utilization of innovative technologies or techniques, product quality and cost reduction, and market demand for new products.
IV) Based on the results obtained in these three sections, this thesis proposes a strategy to maximize the contributions of seaweed cultivation to social well-being and environmental sustainability, by examining the dynamic system formed by the actors involved. Furthermore, it explores financing mechanisms to support innovation and scaling up the activities identified as having positive contributions. This includes developing a detailed economic, social, and environmental viability analysis and seeking sources of funding that align with sustainable development objectives. Finally, the thesis suggests strategies for promoting collaboration among stakeholders and fostering the growth of the seaweed sector as a model for sustainable and environmentally friendly development in Madagascar.