We Are Not Doing the Planet a Favour by Restoring It: Ecosystem Services of Seaweed and How We Are Getting Back More Than What We Are Giving.
One of the traps of working in the environment restoration, ‘for the planet, by the people’ type of initiatives is that we can fall into the caveats of believing we are doing the planet a favour by ‘saving’ it from its combustion. Well… this type of saviour complex is not uncommon to mankind…think about colonialisation for one. The idea of contributing to the greater good can be a great incentive to drive well-meaning action, but the more we believe we are ‘saving’ a ‘helpless’ planet for its demise, the more we are likely to associate power, control and eventually take the said planet for granted.
In the glory of ‘helping’ the planet, we begin to assume a one-sided nature of service. Therefore, one of the most overlooked aspects of any activity adding to greening, restoring or repairing the planet is the ecosystem services we reap through the process. Albeit not in economic or monetary terms, humans receive a lot from the planet. Maybe because it is non-monetary or since it existed from the dawn of mankind, services such as air, water and other regulating services, such as maintaining climate, regulating disease and so on, are not a) acknowledged for what value they hold and therefore b) sometimes, more often than not, taken for granted.
So far in this article series, we’ve seen how seaweed farming contributes to marine health, green skill-related revenue generation and contributes to industries such as pharma, fodder, food and so on. While these are intended outputs of seaweed farming, just the act of restoring marine health leads to various unintended positive services for mankind. These ecosystem services not only help us but help regulate the planet and make it a livable place for us too - so if you see it like that, it's a double-jointed effort at restoring climate and planetary health.
Rather than writing a theoretical preface to ecosystem services before delving into seaweed farming and its specific ecosystem services, I am going to introduce the theory through seaweed.
Of the 4 kinds of ecosystem services, the most visible to us is the provisioning service, where parts of nature provide us with food, water, natural gases and medical benefits.
In that manner, seaweed, through the means of seaweed farming, exhibits a lot of provisioning services. It provides raw materials, chemical sources and energy as well as genetic resources for further research, development of specific combinations for society. But the most interesting provision, according to me, is the production of high-quality food for the local community and workers. You might wonder what is interesting about providing food? Well, at face value, there seems to be none, but when we think of what it means to the local community, the idea of food security emerges. Seaweed then shifts from being an object of need to a social sense of security.
The second kind of ecosystem service includes regulating services - ecosystems provide a lot of the basic services that make life possible for people - from plants cleaning air and filtering water, to bacteria decomposing waste and bees pollinating flowers - all these processes work together to make the ecosystem livable by creating a clean, sustainable, functional and resilient place to be in.
Seaweed in that manner regulates the atmosphere and climate by maintaining carbon levels as seaweeds absorb carbon. The marine ecosystem is regulated because seaweed reduces coastal acidification. At a surface level, it might seem like ‘well, the ocean is getting better, how is that helping ME?’ It’s not surprising that we ask these questions, because, well, we tend to retain main character energy in every narrative on this planet, and sometimes in space. The answer lies in the regulation - better ocean health means better regulation of the ocean atmosphere. Better ocean health can indicate the presence of reefs, seaweed and natural water plants, which contribute to carbon sequestration, making the atmosphere better and healthier for us.
The third ecosystem service is the cultural services seaweed provides to us. This includes aesthetic value, contribution to science and education, cultural heritage, inspiration and inclusion by means of provision of work for women, public commons, third spaces and so on.
And the final ecosystem service that serves two ways is supporting services. Contributing to nature and the earth allows it to serve itself and therefore perform better in the above three services. Seaweed contributes to the food web dynamics, thereby creating circumstances for better biodiversity, which then means more chances for carbon sequestration and further ecosystem services.
As we conclude our three-part series on seaweed, I hope we are on the same page with regard to why you and I need to care about seaweed, the marine ecosystem and climate change. Besides the many contributions seaweed has in the betterment of our lives - people, planet, profit, ecosystem services, etc - seaweed is a powerful means to regenerating planetary health and the continued livelihood of not just humans but so many other species. This is powerful because humanity’s contribution and adaptation of seaweed allows seaweed the potential to reduce and reverse the adverse consequences of human action.
And maybe these articles broadened your perspective from “oh seaweed! Reminds me of sushi” to “wow seaweed is really transformation, it's magical” to unearthing the nuances, science and reality behind the magic of this green lump floating in the oceans.
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