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Ocean-positive solutions to climate change and the biodiversity crisis

Dr Carlos Drews

Executive Vice-President, Conservation

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Chile

Puerto Montt – 41 degrees South. Vancouver 45 North.

OCEANS: I will talk about the oceans. Why? Oceans cover 71% of the Earth's surface and represent 99 percent of the living space on the planet by volume. If you ended up living on planet Earth, your life and prosperity is closely tied to the health of the oceans.

EVERY 2nd BREATH WE TAKE: For all of us here at Globe Forum, every second breath we take comes from the ocean, produced by tiny bacteria and algae. That dependency is true for all breathing creatures.
CLIMATE BUFFER: If we use a climate lens, the ocean acts as an important buffer from climate impacts absorbing up to 40 per cent of anthropogenic CO2 emissions and over 90 per cent of the excess heat from human emissions.
GLOBAL GDP: If we use an economy lens: The market value of marine and coastal resources and industries is estimated at $3 trillion USD per year, about 5 percent of global GDP
LIVELIHOODS: More than 3 billion people (40%) depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods. *Source: UNDP. The world's population has passed 7.7 bn.

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SUSTAINABLE OR NATURE POSITIVE?

Do no harm is not good enough.

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HEALTHY OCEANS?

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DIRE STRAITS: The ocean in dire straits:

FISH: A third (34.2%) of fish stocks are now fished at biologically unsustainable levels, and is not globally improving.
CORAL REEFS - September 2021: half (50%) of coral reefs have been lost since the 1950s due to climate change, pollution and overfishing. A UBC study.

October 2021: Rising ocean temperatures killed about 14% of the world's coral reefs in just under a decade, according to a new analysis from the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.

DEAD ZONES: “Dead zones” are deadly: few or no organisms can survive in their oxygen-depleted, or hypoxic, waters. They are caused by an increase in nutrients (particularly nitrogen and phosphorus) in the water, known as eutrophication. Cyanobacteria are not good food for zooplankton and fish and hence accumulate in water, die, and then decompose. The bacterial degradation of their biomass consumes the oxygen in the water, thereby creating the state of hypoxia. Anthropogenic causes: agricultural run-offs of chemical fertilizers and sewage discharges into rivers. In the 1970s, marine dead zones were first noted and a 2008 study counted 405 dead zones worldwide, e.g. notably in the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay in the US. Other marine dead zones have appeared in coastal waters of South America, China, Japan, and New Zealand.
SHIFTING BASELINES: What is then the baseline to do-no-harm? A shifted baseline evidently, anchored in the midst of a sick ocean. The wonderful underwater world that some of us enjoyed in Jacques Cousteau's documentaries in the 60s and 70s is no longer. And even those diving locations were not pristine anymore at his time.

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THE GOOD NEWS

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THE GOOD NEWS: Why should we care? Why is it important that we transition to a nature-positive engagement with the oceans? We all pretty much depend on a healthy ocean. SDG14 Life Below Water comes from a global consensus that acknowledges that. And here are the good news:

It can be done: marine life can be rebuilt. Duarte et al. Nature paper in 2020 tells us that we can accomplish this in the next 30 years, while continuing to benefit from ocean services. Depleted fisheries can be rebuilt - a global rebuilding effort of exploited fish stocks could increase fishing yields by ~15% and profits by ~80%. The decline of coral reefs can be halted, not everywhere, but in some locations, whales and other large predators can bounce back, and fragile ecosystems like kelp and oyster reefs can be restored … As long as major pressures, including climate change, are mitigated. The authors describe this as a doable Grand Challenge for humanity, both an ethical obligation, and a smart economic objective.

I want to argue today that ocean-positive is becoming a business imperative and is already an ethical obligation.

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WHY SHOULD BUSINESSES CARE?

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Yields

Resilience

Values

Business ethic

Why should businesses care?

HIGHER YIELDS: If your product comes from the ocean, of course you care. Under a regenerative effort to rebuild fisheries, yields will increase. It is all a matter of the time horizon chosen. Short-term, you could overharvest your marine life to the ground to maximize returns. Middle- and long-term, however this short-sighted approach is economic suicide.
RESILIENCE: Take the argument one layer up the onion: a more resilient ecosystem is more likely to withstand the sudden impacts of extreme climatic events. If your entire production line depends on the health of that oyster reef, or on a kelp bed as spawning habitat for your herring, or on a stunning coral reef in the Caribbean on which your dive shops depends, you want it to be as resilient as it can be - you will invest in strengthening it, enhancing its biodiversity, mitigating pollution and other stressors on marine life - you will want to have an ocean-positive enterprise.
ALIGNMENT OF VALUES: Client expectations and values: some cloth manufacturers are demanding net-zero terms from shipping companies to transport their good around the globe. Why? Among other things because there is a growing, critical mass of consumers of clothes demanding responsible cradle-to-grave practices from the manufacturers and retailers. Market advantage. Brand resilience. But also: just the right thing to do. And doing the right thing is not just being respectful of the natural resources and social equity. It is also gratifying. I have met business leaders that give me that answer - that is their prime motivation to do good.
NEW BUSINESS ETHIC: The right thing to do: a new business ethic that is emerging. I was lucky to be part of a cohort of trainees on High Performance Leadership at IMD, the renown business school in Lausanne, Switzerland. A responsible business ethic vis-a-vis social and environmental impacts is a pillar of the curricula at IMD. Yes, there are brand and market advantages to adhering to this refreshed business ethic, but the bottom line is that it is "the right thing to do" and strong value alignment is increasingly shaping the you-your business, consumer - producer and the employee-employer relationships.

CSR - take one definition of Corporate Social Responsibility: the concept that a business has a responsibility to do good. Not to do no harm. To do good, actually. A subtle but important difference that points at net positive.

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MOVING TOWARDS OCEAN-POSITIVE

Seaweed farming

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What can organizations do to move to net positive?

Teck is one of Canada's leading mining companies. Teck's ambition is to be nature positive by 2030 through land conservation investments that will protect 14,000 hectares of wildlife habitat and ecosystems in Canada and Chile. This is equivalent to over 40% of their current mining footprint.

YOUR PLEDGE - CASE OF SEAWEED FARMING - Your question: Is your desirable engagement with the ocean net-zero or nature positive? An insight turning into a pledge. Then a plan of action. At Ocean Wise, an ocean conservation organization, for us it is clear that any business relationship with the ocean has to be ocean-positive - this is a different take on interpretations of the blue economy that maximize economic returns based on do-not harm. Scientist tell us that we have this decade to turn the tide before facing irreversible large-scale damage. Ocean-positive is not something to philosophize about for years to come - it is something that must be implemented now. And mind you: my ocean-positive convictions are the result of conversations with seaweed farmers in BC like Canadian Pacifico Seaweeds, Cascadia Seaweeds and others, who are committed to demonstrate that kelp cultivators can help regenerate coastal ecosystems and have a positive climate impact. Here is what ocean-positive seaweed farming could look like:

NATIVE SPECIES: Do not use introduced seaweed species, stick to local species known to be of value to the coastal biodiversity.
CLIMATE PROOF: Place the seaweed farm in a locations that are likely climate refugia to add long-term resilience to the investment and biodiversity improvements.
BIODIVERSITY: Kelp is habitat for many fish and invertebrates and seals, otters and seabirds that prey upon them. Consideration should be given to the role of the seaweed farm in serving as habitat for marine life - proximity to a river mouth will result in temporary habitat for salmon for example.
BIOREMEDIATION: The seaweed farm acts as an agent of bioremediation - it eliminates excess nutrients, prevents eutrophication, buffering the location from the risk of hypoxia. And it acts as an acidification buffer. It effectively improves the water quality for both commercial and non-commercial species associated to it. Acidification is the result of climate change as the uptake of much CO2 from the atmosphere results in more hydrogen dissolved in water and less carbonate ions available. It is an issue for invertebrates that build a shell, which dissolves under acidic conditions - small larvae of Dungeness crabs and corals, for example, are affected.
CARBON SINK: The seaweed farm is a carbon sink - fastest growing tissue, carbon removal and permanent sequestration. Not subject to fire hazard. And sequestration continues year after year, it does not plateau as in terrestrial forests. No regrets! A catalytic contribution to carbon drawdown: farmers willing to allocate a percentage of the harvest to carbon sequestration - offer it to by sank in the abysses.

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CHILE

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Lessonia spicata, also known as "huiro negro" or black huiro. Lessonia ceratoides has long been used by Indigenous communities in Chile and Peru for a variety of purposes, including food, medicine, and as a source of materials for weaving and other crafts.
Durvillaea antarctica: This species of kelp is known as "cochayuyo" in Chile, and is commonly harvested and consumed as a vegetable. Cochayuyo is also used in traditional medicine, and contains compounds with antibacterial and antifungal properties. Also called “southern bull kelp”.

INVESTING IN KELP RESTORATION AT SCALE: maximizing environmental returns. An opportunity for any industry to go beyond offsets required by law. Also for Proactive Conservation Action, voluntary commitments. We are starting a scalable kelp restoration effort project in BC and Chile. We are talking potentially about thousands of hectares of restored kelp in Chile, both a contribution of planetary significance and an inspiration for other regions of the world.

Partnership with coastal, Indigenous peoples. Livelihood improvements (e.g. urchin and kelp harvest). And building ecosystem resilience.
And the ocean-positive intervention restoring kelp can be the foundation for trade with carbon credits in the future.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO

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