Strengthening the role of blue foods in coastal Pacific food systems

ABSTRACT

Blue foods, primarily coastal pelagic fish, reef fish, and invertebrates, are integral to coastal food systems in Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs) and are increasingly embedded in food policy platforms. This paper discusses the collaborative development of a Blue Food Assessment for the Pacific (BFA-P). The BFA-P aims to strengthen the role of blue foods in food systems thinking and actions in PICTs in the face of climate change, a dependence on food imports, and high rates of diet-related non-communicable diseases. It focuses on six main research themes that support a coastal food systems approach to improve environmental outcomes, nutrition and human health, and social and economic objectives in PICTs. Climate change, effective governance, innovative partnerships, and equity underpin all areas of research. Combining current scientific evidence with traditional and indigenous knowledge will be essential for sustaining coastal Pacific food systems and the long-term resilience and prosperity of Pacific people.

KEYWORDS:

• Blue foods
• Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs)
• coastal food systems
• food systems approach

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Prof. Walter Falcon for helpful comments on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The BFA (https://bluefood.earth/) is an international initiative involving over 100 experts from around the world designed to lay the scientific foundation for supporting decision-makers in their pursuit of healthy, equitable, just, and sustainable food systems.

2 Roughly 55% of global tuna capture currently originates from the West and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission Area (Hare et al., 2022), but these offshore resources are exploited mainly by large-scale industrial vessels through negotiated access agreements, and generally do not directly benefit coastal communities.

3 It is worth noting that per capita fish consumption data reported in the literature do not always specify liveweight versus edible weight, the latter being a more accurate indicator of dietary intake (Naylor et al., 2021a).

4 The population of PICTs is forecast to grow by 60% by 2050 from roughly 11 million to 17.7 million. That growth is projected to occur in mainly 4 countries: Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, and Kiribati. Other islands are projected to register very slow or no population growth (Firth, 2018).

5 Although crop production in the region has doubled over the past half century, mainly for subsistence and local exchange, it has not kept pace with population growth. The production of root crops and starchy vegetables, such as cassava, sweet potato, and breadfruit has declined in recent decades, while output of bananas and other fruits and vegetables has risen but not fast enough to supply the rising population-driven demand (Andrew et al., 2022).

6 https://www.spc.int/updates/blog/2019/09/non-communicable-diseases-in-focus-at-the-13th-pacific-health-ministers

7 Other groups, including WorldFish and CSIRO, are also actively collaborating in this area.

8 Household Income and Expenditure Surveys, developed and coordinated by SPC, are currently underway to update previous estimates of fish consumption patterns across the region for different fish species groups. This work is significant given that per capita consumption of blue foods is typically derived as a residual of production and trade data at the national level, providing little insight on demand patterns across urban and rural areas, across sub-national regions, and across species or taxa (especially for seaweed and aquatic plants) in edible versus liveweight metrics (Naylor et al., 2021a).

9 Future research by the BFA-P might include, for example, a comparative analysis of the potential nutrition, environment, and livelihood outcomes from achieving annual per capita fish consumption levels of 20kg, 35kg, and 50kg within the context of the complete food system.