Seaweed is increasingly being hailed as a promising solution to a range of sustainability challenges. It can be used as a nutritious superfood, but also as a raw material for products such as biodegradable plastics. Large-scale seaweed farming is also often presented as a driver of local economic development, creating jobs and opening up new business opportunities. But is this really the case?
Under what conditions can seaweed farming truly benefit both people and nature? And who actually stands to gain from the rapid expansion of the seaweed industry?
These questions lie at the heart of a new research project led by anthropologists Marja Spierenburg, Miriam Waltz and Mandy de Wilde. Together with researchers from the University of Edinburgh, Stellenbosch University and the Scottish Association for Marine Science, they will spend the next five years investigating the development of the seaweed sector in Scotland and South Africa. The project has been awarded an €800,000 grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Colonial legacy
The research examines both small-scale, community-led initiatives and large commercial seaweed enterprises. Scotland and South Africa were deliberately selected because, in both countries, colonial legacies continue to shape power relations and access to natural resources. The researchers aim to better understand how these historical inequalities influence the rapidly growing seaweed sector today.
Blue economy
At first glance, seaweed appears to be an ideal sustainable resource. It absorbs carbon dioxide, requires neither freshwater nor fertilisers, and can be processed into food, bioplastics, biofuels and biofertilisers. For this reason, seaweed has become a key component of the so-called blue economy-the idea that marine resources can be used sustainably to address societal and climate-related challenges.
Focus on economic value
However, many blue economy initiatives primarily focus on the economic value of the oceans and on the private sector. They often assume that these developments will automatically benefit both the environment and local communities. According to the research team, this assumption is overly simplistic. The structural causes of environmental degradation are rarely addressed and the impact on local communities remains poorly understood. How will expanding seaweed cultivation-particularly on a large scale-affect local people's access to the sea, their livelihoods, and their ways of life?
In other words, pursuing climate goals alone is not enough; the way these goals are achieved is just as important. It is therefore essential to include the perspectives of local communities to ensure that new sustainability initiatives do not reproduce longstanding, often colonial, patterns of inequality.
Focus on different perspectives through creative and accessible research methods
To better understand what seaweed means to different stakeholders, the researchers will conduct extensive interviews with local residents, entrepreneurs, policymakers and civil society organisations. They will also engage in participant observation by joining people in their daily activities, attending community meetings, and observing how local communities interact with seaweed and their coastal environment.
In addition, the project will employ visual storytelling and counter-mapping. These creative research methods make it possible to capture more intangible forms of knowledge, such as people's experiences, emotions and the meanings they attach to particular places-insights that are often difficult to express in a conventional interview.
Where maps have historically been used by colonial powers as instruments of control, counter-mapping instead foregrounds the perspectives and knowledge of local communities. The research team also hopes that these creative methods will make the project's findings more accessible and engaging for a wider audience.
A fairer and more sustainable seaweed sector
By bringing together all of these perspectives, the researchers aim to gain a deeper understanding of where interests conflict, but also where opportunities for collaboration exist. Ultimately, the project seeks to contribute to a fairer and more sustainable development of the seaweed sector-one that values not only economic returns, but also the wellbeing of local communities and nature itself.
