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BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENGE

PHOTO: DAVID BALL, SECONDMUSE

BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENGE & AQUACELERATOR Final Report BACKGROUND

““I am inspired by the energy and the diversity of leaders from Why focus on ? across government and business and the science world and academia joining in the eforts to realize the challenges and

opportunites of the Blue Economy.” billion people across the world depend on fsheries producton has fatlined. As the global THE HONORABLE JULIE BISHOP MP, AUSTRALIAN seafood for their economic security and daily seafood demand contnues to increase and the MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS 2 food intake. Aquaculture, which is rapidly supply from fsheries decreases, more and more growing, is already responsible for approximately economic opportunity for new smallholder 50% of the seafood that ends up on our plates. In producers will emerge. the Indian Ocean Region alone, more than 12 million tons of seafood are produced per year Aquaculture is an incredibly unique development through capture fsheries and aquaculture. With tool. It presents an environmentally positve worldwide demand for protein antcipated to approach to addressing while skyrocket in the coming decades, aquaculture will providing livelihood opportunites for marginalized play a critcal role in feeding an expected global populatons. Generally, an approach that captures populaton of 9 billion by 2050. Developing those three outcomes would have to be countries do not need an introducton to introduced to target populatons. What truly aquaculture. More than half of the world’s seafood separates aquaculture as a development tool is exports originate in developing countries. For that it is not an interventon: it is a practce that is smallholder seafood producers, the economic and already widespread with massive potental to be food supply pull factors of aquaculture, both developed and scaled. locally and globally, are apparent and atractve. 90% of global aquaculture occurs in the Yet, the reality for many of these producers is that developing world. Yet, smallholder producers from they are being pushed to aquaculture as a means Bangladesh to Tanzania are not set up for success. of survival as fsh supplies are depleted and our These producers struggle to access current environment changes. technologies and capital, while challenged by Wild fsheries around the world are nearing the limited infrastructure and ofen inhibited at the point of collapse. Aquaculture is projected to at policy level. Aquaculture has the potental to be least double in output by 2050 as it replaces wild the environmentally friendly protein source of the sourced seafood. Farmed seafood has already future, but as the industry currently stands, it is in overtaken producton from capture fsheries. Fish need of innovatons to improve efciency, farming enables seafood consumpton (and access , and long-term viability. Accordingly, to protein) to contnue to increase even as marine we invited innovators worldwide to solve three of its major challenges.

2 3 PHOTO: YURI GRIPAS BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENGE & AQUACELERATOR BACKGROUND

What is the Blue What were the 220+ Economy Challenge? submissions we received? Led by the Australian Department of Foreign Afairs and Trade (DFAT) innovatonXchange in partnership with SecondMuse, WWF Australia, and Conservaton X Labs, the Blue Economy Challenge (BEC) was an efort to promote aquaculture solutons in support of development outcomes in economies across the Indian Ocean Region. The three challenge areas were as follows:

CHALLENGE 1: Rethinking CHALLENGE 2: New Ocean CHALLENGE3: Sustainable Feed for Aquaculture: Create highly Products: Create new ocean products Design: Introduce new technology nutritonal aquaculture feed that vastly expand the diversity, and practces for aquaculture farmers, replacements that match or improve on sustainability, and quality improving the efciency and the cost and nutritonal performance of of aquaculture products to meet environmental and economic Challenge 1 Challenge 2 Challenge 3 existng feedstock while reducing the growing food security needs sustainability of aquaculture farms. Improvements to supply chain RETHINKING FEED NEW OCEAN SUSTAINABLE burden on the natural environment. while decreasing aquaculture’s efciency can also improve FOR AQUACULTURE PRODUCTS DESIGN environmental footprint. productvity and livelihoods. 30% 19.5% 50.5% Why network-centered innovaton?

For the past three years, SecondMuse and environment, helping organizatons truly the iXc have been testng a new approach to understand and believe in each other’s value, development innovaton that moves beyond and working concretely to help advance the the individual, or even the open success of others. call, and brings together diverse networks Rather than focusing on just a small part Submissions included 157 (70%) early stage companies of actors for a more holistc type of problem of a larger problem, we look to systemic solving. With and poverty and 65 (30%) late stage companies representng the solutons: ways to fx not only one minor reducton as our targets, we know that, in obstacle, but disrupt the global following countries: order to innovate through new feed infrastructure. Big problems call for big solutons, new ocean products, and Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, Guatemala, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, solutons. , we need to employ Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritus, Mexico, Mozambique, a novel approach that fips traditonal At a programmatc level, this looks like the Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Panama, Philippines, Poland, Senegal, Seychelles, Singapore, development on its head. development of a network of individuals and South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, UK, US, Vietnam. organizatons tailored to the systemic We believe that global systemic problems problem that we are trying to solve. It begins are, by defniton, too big and complex to with the development of a challenge, be addressed by any one person or entty. demanding a new approach to an old As a result, it becomes necessary to work problem. By thoughtully opening up together to solve them. It is not always easy organizatonal and industry-wide challenges or natural for multple diverse organizatons to the masses, we can unleash the creatve to work together on long-term problems. But we do believe that there are certain potental to make a lastng positve impact, conditons that make it easier to collaborate as people contribute their talents to issues and we help cultvate that. This includes they care deeply about. having people work together in an inspiring The result is faster, beter, and cheaper solutons that will help us meet the growing The Blue Economy Challenge top 20 fnalists demand for protein, while ending hunger, included innovatons from the South African improving economic outcomes, and Department of Agriculture, Forestry and ; Bali’s Symbiopro; and University of sustaining our oceans for future generatons. the Philippines at Los Baños.

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Who were the selected Fellows? The Fellows and the Goals AGRIPROTEIN MICROSYNBIOTIX LTD. TECHNOLOGIES Algal oral vaccines for The Blue Economy Challenge initally set out to tackle two key Sustainable Development Industrial-scale insect disease management Goals: Goal 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth and Goal 14, Life Below Water. meal protein replacement BASED: In United States and Through the work of the selected innovators, we collectvely address 11 of 17 SDGs. of fshmeal in fsh feed Ireland BASED: In South Africa IMPACT: In Southeast Asia IMPACT: In South Africa With the rapidly growing global countries, with their sustainable populaton, innovaton is needed to spirulina farming technology. contnue to produce enough food to B R I D G I N G SDG 1: EnerGaia, Odyssey Sensors, World ODYSSEY SENSORS keep up with the needs of that INTERNATIONAL Fish/CSIRO, Indian Ocean Trepang, Bridging global populaton. Through their Internatonal Communites, The Recycler, COMMUNITIES A low-cost solar-powered salinity sensor new contract farming model, AgriProtein, SeaPower. Oasis Aquaponic Food EnerGaia is working to meet that SDG 8: EnerGaia, MicroSynbiotX, Odyssey Producton System BASED: In United Kingdom Sensors, The Climate Foundaton, World Fish/ IMPACT: In Bangladesh need while providing economic CSIRO, Indian Ocean Trepang, Bridging BASED: In United States opportunity, partcularly for women Internatonal Communites, The Recycler, IMPACT: In India farmers in rural areas of developing AgriProtein, SeaPower.

In many parts of the world, their pilot program, Climate C L I M AT E changing climate has prevented Foundaton is set to make an impact FOUNDATION THE RECYCLER LTD. natural ocean overturning in the Indian Ocean region. Larvae from biowaste circulaton—a process that brings Open water Marine SDG 12: World Fish/CSIRO, The Recycler, nutrient-rich waters to the sea Arrays for aquaculture feed AgriProtein surface resultng in aquatc plant BASED: In Tanzania SDG 13: The Climate Foundaton, and animal productvity. With their AgriProtein, SeaPower BASED: In United States IMPACT: In Tanzania IMPACT: In Tanzania marine permaculture arrays, SDG 14: MicroSynbiotX, Odyssey Sensors, Climate Foundaton is restoring The Climate Foundaton, World Fish/CSIRO, Indian Ocean Trepang, The Recycler, overturning circulaton. With the AgriProtein, SeaPower Blue Economy Challenge funding SDG 15: The Recycler, AgriProtein ENERGAIA CO. LTD. SEAPOWER Sustainable producton Improved seaweed farming The Oasis Aquaponic System by potental to improve household of spirulina technology for women Bridging Internatonal Communites nutriton for more than 1 billion BASED: In Thailand BASED: In Tanzania is a cost-efcient and low-income people worldwide. IMPACT: In Thailand, IMPACT: In Tanzania and Kenya environmentally sustainable soluton Bangladesh, and India SDG 2: EnerGaia, Odyssey Sensors, to food challenges in both rural and WorldFish/CSIRO, Indian Ocean Trepang, suburban communites. With the Bridging Internatonal Communites, The support of Aquacelerator, including Recycler, AgriProtein, SeaPower. introductons in Tanzania, the SDG 3: EnerGaia, MicroSynbiotX, Odyssey WORLDFISH Sensors, World Fish/CSIRO, Bridging INDIAN OCEAN innovaton crafed by Bridging Internatonal Communites. TREPANG AND CSIRO Internatonal Communites has the Sea cucumber farming Turning crop wastes into sustainable aquaculture feeds for local communites Indian Ocean Trepang is providing women’s rights and gender equality BASED: In Madagascar BASED: In Malaysia and Australia signifcant opportunites to women in and entrustng fshers’ coastal village IMPACT: In Madagascar IMPACT: In Indonesia, Tanzania, Madagascar. As they expand to new communites, very ofen carried by and Bangladesh countries, they are bringing a women, to grow sea cucumber commitment to provide women with juveniles to adult size in their own economic opportunites that elevate sea pens. their place in society and their pride. SDG 5: EnerGaia, Indian Ocean Trepang, This includes working with NGO Bridging Internatonal Communites, partners who provide training on AgriProtein, SeaPower PHOTOS: provided by corresponding fellows 6 7 BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENGE & AQUACELERATOR BLUE ECONOMY CHALLENGE & AQUACELERATOR

• The Climate Foundaton has been featured on Australian Public Radio, Radio New Zealand, WWF’s Natonal What were highlights from Council Conventon, and Australian Broadcastng Company’s Future Tense. They were also featured in Paul Hawken’s book Drawdown. their acceleraton? World Fish/CSIRO Since being selected for the Blue Economy Challenge, each Fellow has progressed leaps Around 17 million tons of wild-caught fsh is used as feed for farmed fsh and prawns, approximately equal to Africa’s current fsh consumpton by humans. WorldFish and CSIRO are bringing Novacq™, a waste based feed and bounds, achieving signifcant milestones along the way. Below are just some of the additve that eliminates the need for wild-caught fsh in prawn feed, to the IORA region. Novacq™ will empower highlights from their acceleraton. smallholder farmers to enhance the performance of local feed ingredients and increase productvity with feeds containing litle to no wild-caught fsh. • World Fish and CSIRO received $400,000 AUD to demonstrate the efectveness of Novacq™ with local AgriProtein communites in three countries, and pilot distributon models for each country. • In Bangladesh, World Fish and CSIRO have launched their pilot project in partnership with local communites in Approximately ⅕ of all fsh caught worldwide is used for fshmeal. AgriProtein is the world’s largest producer of black Khulna who are using Ridley-produced Novacq™ to supplement their prawn feed. soldier fy larvae, a replacement for ocean-caught fshmeal. Fed on food waste, black soldier fy larvae is a natural fsh food, resultng in growth rates as good as fshmeal and beter than soya. • In Indonesia, the team is partnering with the University of Malikussaleh to test the efectveness of Novacq™ in local conditons, and to building the University of Malikussaleh’s capacity to produce Novacq using local • AgriProtein received a $450,000 AUD grant to standardize the protein producton process and standardize fshmeal ingredients for consumpton by local communites in Aceh. compositon, enabling scaled producton and replicaton globally. • Finally, in Tanzania, the foundatons for both prawn and fnned fsh trials are being developed in partnership with • Since being selected for the Blue Economy Challenge, AgriProtein has secured a $22,830,000 AUD investment and is Sokoine University of Agriculture. Trials will begin in early February 2018. currently fundraising for an additonal $65,000,000 AUD round. • The project was featured on Australian Broadcastng Company’s Future Tense, and WorldFish Director General • In early 2017, AgriProtein announced a signifcant partnership with engineering services company Christof Industries, Blake Ratner was interviewed about the project by BBC Global, pending airtme. securing $10,000,000 USD to rollout 100 fy farms by 2024 and 200 by 2027. • As a result of the BEC, AgriProtein also examined gender balance in their workforce. With new diversity initatves, they increased their female workforce by 10% in 1 month. With new nutriton initatves, they began providing Indian Ocean Trepang employees daily protein to supplement their meals. • AgriProtein was selected for the prestgious 2017 Global Cleantech 100 list by the Cleantech Group as one of the Sea cucumbers are critcal to Indo-Pacifc region ecosystems, but due to increasing demand by Chinese consumers, most promising ideas impactng the future. They were also named BBC’s Food Chain Global Champion and featured over 70 sea cucumber species are on the verge of extncton. Indian Ocean Trepang works with coastal on Australian Broadcastng Company’s Future Tense. communites to grow, process, and sell sea cucumbers to consumers worldwide. Their low-tech, environmentally- sound model gives low-income fshermen access to a growing and lucratve global . Bridging Internatonal Communites • IOT received $200,000 AUD to expand existng operatons in Madagascar and to help start the expansion of operatons to one other locaton in the Indian Ocean Region. Food insecurity afects more than 1 billion people globally. Aquaculture could fx this; however, small-scale aquaculture • Afer being selected by the BEC, IOT secured a $3,500,000 AUD investment from BEC judge AquaSpark to fund requires either low stocking density or expensive, frequent water exchanges to achieve sizable fsh. Bridging Internatonal producton and new country expansion. Communites’ (BIC) Oasis Aquaponic System is an incredibly low-cost, solar-powered “farm-in-a-box”, requiring very few resources to produce 200 Tilapia and 270 kilograms of vegetables annually, enough for a family of four to eat fsh every • IOT is working with BEC council member Donna Kwan of UNEP and BEC Fellow Saumil Shah of EnerGaia to day. bring sea cucumber farming to Trang, Thailand, as an alternatve economic model for dugong habitat preservaton. • BIC received a $75,000 AUD grant to develop version 2.0 of the Oasis Aquaponic System and conduct pilot projects with low-income communites in the Indian Ocean Region in partnership with local NGOs and community based • IOT is also working with The Recycler to bring community sea cucumber farming to Tanzania, and with the organizatons. Malagasy government and the on a coastal village partnership program to expand to six new villages and reach 204 families by 2019. • With BEC funding, the team secured warehouse space in Michigan and has begun manufacturing units for deployment. They have been exploring partnerships around the Indian Ocean Region, focusing on Tanzania and India. • BIC was also featured on Australian Broadcastng Company’s Future Tense. MicroSynbiotX Annually, bacterial and viral diseases wipe out 5% of the world’s farmed fsh stocks – equatng to a loss of more The Climate Foundaton than $10,000,000,000 USD. Disease can decimate a family or community’s entre stock, and destabilize a In many parts of the world, climate change has prevented natural ocean overturning, killing kelp forests and reducing the developing naton’s entre aquaculture industry. To mitgate these risks, the aquaculture industry has two optons: productvity of seaweed farms. The Climate Foundaton has developed a permaculture system to reverse this process, use antbiotcs, which end up on our plates, or vaccinate hundreds of millions of fsh by hand. Both methods are using wave energy to manually restore overturning circulaton in areas where it has stopped. This Marine Permaculture expensive, labor-intensive and unsustainable. MicroSynbiotX is developing a cost-efcient, environment-friendly, Array™ (MPA) directs nutrient-rich waters towards the seaweed farmed in permaculture arrays, enhancing the growth of and consumer-friendly oral delivery method to vaccinate fn fsh and shrimp against viral disease outbreaks. The seaweed and providing habitat for diverse fauna including invertebrates, forage and game fsh, and birds. technology locks vaccines inside microalgae’s biomass, turning the algae itself into an oral vaccine delivery system. • The Climate Foundaton received $200,000 AUD to develop version 2.0 of The Marine Permaculture Array and pilot it • MicroSynbiotX received $200,000 AUD to to ofcially start product development and hire their chief scientfc in the Indian Ocean Region. advisor Dr. Kwang-Chul Kwon full-tme. This funding also helped secure their series A funding round. • MPA v2.0 modifcatons have been made, and test runs of the of New England were successful. The team is • MicroSynbiotX secured a $1,570,000 AUD series A funding round led by council member Carsten Krome from preparing for their frst 100m MPA pilot project in the Indian Ocean, of the coast of Bali, Indonesia. Alimentos Ventures, SOS Ventures, RebelBio, and Enterprise Ireland.

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• In additon to the BEC, MicroSynbiotX won two signifcant industry recognitons from the California Life Sciences • In India, they have a team on the ground constructng tanks out of local materials with the aim of Insttute’s FAST Advisory Program and Nutreco’s Feed Tech Challenge. deploying 1000 tanks to farmers by the end of 2017. • MicroSynbiotX was featured by a number of global publicatons, including the Hufngton Post, Australian • In Bangladesh, EnerGaia won the USAID and Winrock’s Tech4Farmers Innovaton Challenge, Broadcastng Company’s Future Tense, and major industry publicatons including Seafood Source and AgFunderNews. which provided them with an additonal $325,000 AUD to hire a staf, set up an ofce, cover overhead, and develop partnerships with Solidaridad and the Bangladesh Agriculture University. The Recycler • The third project is a collaboraton with UNEP in Southern Thailand to provide alternatve livelihoods through spirulina producton in areas where dugong conservaton is paramount. For each kilogram of biowaste that a Black Soldier Fly (BSF) consumes, 65 grams of a protein are produced. The Recycler EnerGaia has developed this project along with BEC council member Donna Kwan and a local is collaboratng with project partner Maneli aquaculture farms to formulate and test feed produced with BSF protein hotel chain in the region. from the Recycler’s facilites in Tanzania. • The Recycler was awarded $200,000 AUD to outft a BSF larvae producton facility, hire the technical expertse to increase BSF producton, and build the facilites to conduct feed trials. Odyssey Sensors • While operatonalizing, the company’s technical team had a breeding breakthrough that led to a massive uptck in the Engineering hardware solutons for development challenges can be complex. Odyssey Sensors number of BSF maggots produced. started the BEC with a prototype salinity sensor that smallholder Bangladeshi shrimp farmers could use to ensure proper salinity levels in their ponds before introducing juvenile shrimp. By knowing • Maneli has constructed a state of the art, 32-pond tlapia farm and indoor hatchery over the last six months. Rigorous the salinity level, farmers could increase their yields and improve their fnancial stability. trials of the feed formulated with the Recycler’s BSF are scheduled to begin by the end of 2017 at Maneli’s aquafarm. • Odyssey Sensors was awarded $200,000 AUD to contnue testng with the Bangladeshi shrimp • The growth of both of these companies will create jobs for the local economy, and if successful, provide the regional farmers and to develop a new technology, the Aquasync, that provides the farmers with the aquaculture sector two of the key ingredients for growth: feed and fngerlings. measurements that they need to increase yields. • The Recycler and Maneli were catalysts for the BEC’s success in Tanzania. Several BEC innovators visited Tanzania and • Odyssey Sensors tested the salinity sensor with 56 smallholder farm clusters. Solidaridad, one of plan to pilot their innovatons in country afer being invited by Maneli co-founder Jon Arul and Recycler co-founder the key BEC partners, helped introduce Odyssey Sensors to these lead farmers. Feedback from Mat Haden. The Recycler and Maneli were prominently featured in the 360˚ flm Making Waves. In additon, they the farmers led to the development of the Aquasync, which can measure pH, dissolved oxygen, were paramount in supportng the Tanzania Aquaculture Big Think. and temperature in additon to salinity. • One of the outcomes of the Big Think was the development of a Community Sourced Incubator proposal. The • Farmers will now be able to partcipate in aquaculture certfcaton programs designed to proposal, designed in collaboraton with the iXc and DFAT’s East Africa Mission in Kenya, builds upon the cluster of increase the farmgate price of shrimp and fsh. The next step is for Odyssey Sensors to integrate aquaculture actvity that the BEC supported in Tanzania. technology that will allow for e-traceability. • With their new technology and a full team ready to implement, Odyssey Sensors is on track to SeaPower reach 10,000 Bangladeshi shrimp farmers by 2019. Their partnership with the Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundaton, along with a $58,000 AUD Make It Possible grant, will accelerate Imagine notcing that year afer year you were producing less and less. That is the predicament that women seaweed that market penetraton. farmers across Zanzibar were facing. A group of women scientsts had been working with these women for over a decade, but needed a new strategy now that the seaweed grown in shallow waters was no longer producing at the rates necessary to sustain these women farmers. • SeaPower, housed at the Insttute of Marine Sciences Zanzibar was awarded $75,000 AUD to introduce tubular nets, which would allow women seaweed farmers to grow higher-value seaweed in deeper waters. • SeaPower provided training and built and deployed the tubular nets with two communites of women seaweed farmers in Zanzibar. One of these groups of farmers is prominently featured in the 360˚ flm Making Waves. • The flm brought tremendous recogniton to the work that SeaPower is doing. The program was awarded second prize at the 2017 Women in Seafood Competton for the flm. • Moving forward, SeaPower was awarded a grant by SwedBio to expand to an additonal community in Zanzibar. Future plans include expansion to the Kenyan coast. • Take a seat on a boat through the immersive flm Making Waves here. The video premiered at UN World Oceans Day.

EnerGaia For centuries spirulina has been grown in open ponds, which have a negatve environmental impact. EnerGaia grows their spirulina in modular, one meter tall, closed containers that eliminate that environmental impact. The modularity of the system allows EnerGaia to grow spirulina from roofops in Bangkok all the way to the dirt patch behind a rural farmer’s house in India or Bangladesh. • EnerGaia was awarded $500,000 AUD to expand their operatons across the Indian Ocean Region through a business model that would place the economic livelihoods of small scale farmers front and center.

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opportunites for people at the base of the pyramid. These Wild Animals and the Mohamed bin Zayed Species users need access to fnance in order to aford to adopt Conservaton Fund are able to help preserve dugong new products. Business model design during the habitats and protect this vulnerable species. In support of Aquacelerator was not just for the Fellow, but also for the this, council member Donna Kwan and mentor Maya end user. This expanded scope allowed the BEC to engage Bankova are working with Fellows Saumil Shah of EnerGaia and push traditonal microfnance insttutons on how to and Thibault Giulioli of Indian Ocean Trepang to bring integrate innovaton throughout the value chain. spirulina and sea cucumber farms respectvely to coastal communites in Thailand, and potentally many other EnerGaia, in partcular, has been able to help bridge the countries that support dugong habitats. The project is being gap from producton to markets with the involvement of designed in collaboraton with a community in Trang, innovatve fnancial partners such as Antenna Foundaton, Thailand, a private sector company, and a foundaton who who have provided fnancial solutons to help scale all bring necessary expertse, capacity, and resources to get spirulina producton in India. As EnerGaia scales across this project of the ground. Southeast Asia, they will contnue to work with BEC council and mentors such as MicroSave, Opportunity The BEC allowed for contnuous exploraton of how to Internatonal, BRAC, and the Grameen Foundaton to look facilitate collaboratons between non-traditonal partners. at value chain fnance solutons that bring resources to What opened doors was expanding the role of network members from just expert guides for the Fellows to rural communites to help them grow spirulina. stakeholders with challenges that we could solve for as CLUSTERS / SUSTAINABLE FISH FEED - The well. In some cases, like the UNEP example above, the BEC insight process helped illuminate innovatons in feed innovatons from the Fellows provided the soluton. In as a critcal opportunity for the sector. other cases, network members came together to solve shared challenges. One such challenge, the lack of support “Rethinking Feed for Aquaculture” became one of the three for aquaculture startups, was solved when two council What did we learn? challenge areas, and AgriProtein, The Recycler, and members, Sunil Kadri from Ridley and Carsten Krome from WorldFish/CSIRO were all selected for their innovatons in Alimentos, came together to develop an aquaculture Throughout the Blue Economy Challenge, we gathered a tremendous amount of insight. As the space. accelerator. we defned the challenges to our oceans, and more specifcally to the sustainable growth of Council member and evaluator Sunil Kadri from Ridley, Australia’s leading provider of high-performance animal WOMEN LEADERS AND WOMEN’S aquaculture, we learned about a myriad of challenges that the industry faces. As we worked nutriton solutons, provided industry insight to legitmize EMPOWERMENT - The Blue Economy Challenge is with stakeholders across the industry to select Fellows from over 220 applicatons, we were and guide these Fellows. This trio demonstrated the exceptonally proud of our Fellows’ commitment to inspired by the diversity of solutons being developed. And as we supported our Fellows, opportunites of a focused challenge bringing together supportng female leaders and the women in their companies of various stages working in the same sector. communites. we learned about specifc resources that aquaculture entrepreneurs need to succeed. Here The acceleraton aspect of the BEC provided space for While gender was not a selecton criteria, two of our are a few highlights we wanted to share. knowledge sharing, network connectons, and mentoring Fellows are all-women teams, and fve of our 10 focus on between Fellows, generatng impact beyond the provision empowering women in their communites. Bridging of individual grants. TANZANIA - The confuence of Fellows based in aquaculture, a small sector with big potental. Internatonal Communites and SeaPower are exceptonal Tanzania, as well as interest from their peers in the BEC AgriProtein, while raising millions of dollars to contnue examples of commited and insightul women from The BEC in Tanzania is a concrete example of how a global building factories to produce insect-based feed, gracefully cohort to expand to the country, provided the Tanzania, Kenya, the United States, and El Salvador who program can have massive local impacts. The outcomes in acted as a role model for The Recycler, an early stage Aquacelerator team with the opportunity to focus on have developed technologies and programs to help women Tanzania provide a model for how a locally focused company building their own insect-based feed operaton in localized acceleraton support. in rural and coastal communites generate income and grow program could create pathways for a network of global Tanzania. WorldFish and CSIRO came together to food for their families. With the support of DFAT’s focus on The Fellows helped SecondMuse build a network of 70+ Fellows to impact a targeted country or region. The ability collaborate on their plant-based feed product, Novacq™, gender equality and opportunity for women, AgriProtein, regional stakeholders, 40 of whom partcipated in a Big to bridge global to local is a challenge SecondMuse has and the BEC team helped coordinate between these two EnerGaia, and Indian Ocean Trepang also provide signifcant Think workshop in Dar es Salaam around the future of been working on for years. Going forward, the BEC is enttes in the early stages of acceleraton. The more opportunites to women in South Africa, Thailand, and Aquaculture in the region. Much as the global BEC hopeful that the momentum contnues and that the similarites Fellows within a cohort share, the more they are Madagascar respectvely. As all fve of these companies network has supported Fellows to fnd investors, scale Fellows in Tanzania can contnue to atract more able to complement each other’s acceleraton. This expand to new countries, they bring a commitment to their businesses, and expand to new markets, the aquaculture innovaton to the country. complementary efect can be encouraged through focused provide women with economic opportunites that elevate Tanzanian stakeholders have already become the local challenge statements or through clustering innovators. their place in society and stmulate their pride. FINANCIAL INNOVATION - While technological partners, funders, and champions for Fellows in the region. Startng at the Forum in Perth, the BEC emphasized the What happened in Tanzania is also a fantastc example of innovatons are easy to visualize, our Fellows began to CROSS SECTOR COLLABORATIONS - opportunity and impact that focusing on women users and the power of the cohort. Fellows outside Tanzania were beneft from innovatve fnancial tools that help allocate SecondMuse fundamentally believes in the power of customers could have for the Fellows. Women’s economic interested in expanding there frst and foremost, because resources across value chains and link producton to diverse networks to help solve complicated challenges. The empowerment was also a critcal component of the they had fellow BEC winners on the ground who could markets that can facilitate the growth of industries, Blue Economy Challenge’s networks were diverse in many Aquacelerator curriculum. Contnuously addressing this help them navigate the complexites of entering a new providing economic opportunites to communites in that ways, resultng in a number of interestng collaboratons. topic as an opportunity rather than a challenge encouraged market. The cluster atracted innovaton within the BEC supply chain. Many of our Fellows are focused on using One of the most promising opportunites emerged when the Fellows to prioritze the inclusion of women in their cohort and energized regional stakeholders to refocus on their innovatons to create alternatve livelihood SecondMuse aligned aquaculture solutons with processes and approaches. conservaton initatves. For example, by helping coastal communites fnd income generaton opportunites to Pictured: Photos from the trip to flm ‘Making replace their reliance on cutng seagrass, UNEP’s Conventon on the Conservaton of Migratory Species of Waves’. Credit: Bret Garling

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