A Portugal-based aquaculture company is conducting a study to evaluate the ecosystem services provided by its bivalve farm to venture into the biodiversity credit market, as it says investments in the industry are still insufficient.
Responding to a question by Carbon Pulse during a webinar hosted by the Japan Impact Investment Network on Tuesday, Bernardo Ferreira de Carvalho, CEO and founder of Oceano Fresco, said the company is considering entering both the carbon and biodiversity credit markets to attract funding.
Oceano Fresco owns a 100-hectare clam and oyster open sea farm off the coast of Lagos, Portugal in the Atlantic Ocean.
“We commissioned a study about the impact of our open sea farm on biodiversity and to measure what kind of ecosystem services we are providing,” Carvalho said.
“I believe we’d very much like to be able to transform our activity into some kind of financial product that helps to fund the farm.”
In addition to providing food, there is a growing recognition of the broader ecosystem benefits of bivalve aquaculture in coastal waters.
According to a separate study carried out by UK scientists, those include carbon sequestration, nutrient remediation, water and particulate filtration, and the creation of substrates that provide habitat as nursery grounds for other species.
However, some services remain largely unquantified since the majority of studies focus on only a few regulating services, such as carbon sequestration or nutrient remediation.
LOOKING FOR FUNDING
Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing food industries in the world, experiencing an average annual global growth of 6.7% between 1990 and 2020.
Yet, impact investments have been curbed by environmental concerns, mostly related to the salmon farming industry, linked to several unsustainable practices.
As conservationists and environmentalists told Carbon Pulse last month, a distinction must be made between aquaculture involving predominantly salmon and a more extensive one involving, for instance, seaweeds, shellfish, and bivalves.
“Aquaculture is really an area where there’s a lot of opportunities to invest, but not a lot of interest,” Carvalho said.
Sowmya Balendiran, CEO and co-founder at Sea 6 Energy, agreed that, at the moment, aquaculture is underfunded, though she said her company is mainly focusing on the carbon market as the biodiversity space is still in its infancy.
Based in India, Sea 6 Energy operates the world’s largest mechanised tropical seaweed farm, established in Indonesia earlier this year to produce biofertilisers, bioplastics, and renewable chemicals.
Balendiran also agreed that impact assessments will play a crucial role in providing transparency within the industry.
“We commissioned a third-party study to measure our biodiversity and socioeconomic impacts because we believe farming seaweeds can really help us move towards a very sustainable future,” Balendiran said during the webinar.
Along with bivalve farming, seaweed aquaculture is seen as one of the most sustainable practices in the industry, and it delivers key ecosystem services, including providing nursery habitat for a variety of marine species.
Sea 6 Energy and Oceano Fresco are both investees of Aqua Spark, a Netherland-headquartered impact investor with AUM of €500 million as of Dec. 2023.
Aqua Spark launched the world’s largest fund to support the sustainable aquaculture industry, with the aim of addressing the challenges faced across the value chain.
The company is also planning to launch a new fund fully dedicated to making investments in aquaculture in Sub Saharan Africa.
By Giada Ferraglioni – giada@carbon-pulse.com
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