Abstract
Fisheries and aquaculture are becoming a focus of societal concern driven by globalization and increasing environmental degradation, mainly caused by climate change and marine litter. In response to this problem, the European Atlantic Area NEPTUNUS project aims to support and inform about the sustainability of the seafood sector, boosting the transition towards a circular economy through defining eco-innovation approaches and a steady methodology for eco-labelling products. This timely trans-regional European project proposes key corrective actions for positively influencing resource efficiency by addressing a life cycle thinking and involving all stakeholders in decision-making processes, harnessing the water-energy-seafood nexus. This paper presents inter-related objectives, methodologies and cues to action that will potentially meet these challenges that are aligned with many of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and European policy frameworks (e.g., Farm to Fork, European Green Deal).
Highlights
Nowadays, the seafood sector is facing important challenges that encompass the three pillars of sustainability: namely, environmental issues—stock depletion, adaptation to climate change and marine debris [1]; economic aspects—obtention of enough benefits that make the sector viable over time [2]; and social perspectives—protection of social rights and worker’s employment
To ensure the dissemination and capitalisation of the results obtained, the NEPTUNUS project seeks to aggregate from a holistic approach the complementarity of the research groups with expertise in fisheries and aquaculture together with sustainable production and consumption strategies, those related to the circular food economy; methodologies supporting life cycle-thinking applications on climate change and its prevention; green economics; life cycle assessment; water and carbon footprint; and industrial ecology and material flow analysis, especially that which is focused on waste material and secondary resources
The economic factor is often the most influential factor in the choice of the consumers, some previous surveys reported that consumers are willing to pay 15–30% more if the ecolabel guarantees that the seafood is healthy and sustainably produced [45]
Summary
The seafood sector is facing important challenges that encompass the three pillars of sustainability: namely, environmental issues—stock depletion, adaptation to climate change and marine debris [1]; economic aspects—obtention of enough benefits that make the sector viable over time [2]; and social perspectives—protection of social rights and worker’s employment. To ensure the dissemination and capitalisation of the results obtained, the NEPTUNUS project seeks to aggregate from a holistic approach the complementarity of the research groups with expertise in fisheries and aquaculture together with sustainable production and consumption strategies, those related to the circular food economy; methodologies supporting life cycle-thinking applications on climate change and its prevention; green economics; life cycle assessment; water and carbon footprint; and industrial ecology and material flow analysis, especially that which is focused on waste material and secondary resources. This work seeks to review the scope and methodology of the NEPTUNUS project to deal with the current situation of the fishing and aquaculture sectors For this purpose, the three fundamental pillars of sustainability will be addressed: environmental degradation, for instance, marine debris [22] or climate change [23]; social perspectives, e.g., people’s concern about the environment [24] or worker’s rights defence [25]; and economic aspects, for example, globalisation [26] or product quality [27]. The approaches and methodologies applied to the seafood sector will serve as potential guidelines for other food systems interested in alignment with SDGs and European commitments
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