A local government initiative to revive seaweed farming off Bali comes amid growing interest in the crop\u2019s promise to tackle environmental problems ranging from carbon emissions to plastic waste pollution.<\/p>\n
Cultivated at scale, seaweed can grow up to 60 times faster than land-based plants, making it an important carbon sink.<\/p>\n
Local startups are also exploring its potential to make bioplastic that is naturally degradable and even edible, for use in food packaging and other applications to replace plastic.<\/p>\n
For the new generation of seaweed farmers in Indonesia, the plant also offers revenue streams through ecotourism.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s just after sunrise here in Bali, and a group of locals are preparing to sail their wooden boats out to a bay off Nusa Lembongan, a small island southeast of the tourism hotspot.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re neither fishermen nor tour guides. They\u2019re farmers, cultivating a watery crop that promises to be part of the solution to the increasingly urgent problem of marine plastic waste that\u2019s become woven into the Bali experience for the millions of people who visit the island each year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlgae cover a very broad area,\u201d says Rama. \u201cI am optimistic. We can develop ecotourism and use the algae in many ways \u2014 for example in our spa, where we scrub tourists with seaweed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rama, 17, is part of a new generation of Balinese hoping to carry on an age-old tradition of harvesting algae, or seaweed. He looks out at the calm and still waters of Lembongan Bay. The inlet is protected by reefs that absorb the waves some 100 meters (330 feet) off the shore. The water temperature hovers at 28\u00b0 Celsius (82\u00b0 Fahrenheit), salinity is at 30%, and the current flows in just the right direction. It\u2019s the perfect place for what grows beneath the surface: Eucheuma cottonii, also known as macroalgae or red seaweed. (Despite its name, it comes in shades of red, brown and green.) The seaweed grows in straight lines, attached to ropes stretched between iron rods that run over the sandy bottom.<\/p>\n
Rama\u2019s father, Wayan Suarbawa, is one of Nusa Lembongan\u2019s five seaweed farmers \u2014 the last remnants of an industry that employed most of the island\u2019s 5,000 inhabitants during its heyday in the 1980s. The big blow came in 2014-2016, when the farms were hit by a bacterial infestation that hardened and whitened the seaweed. The disease was triggered by a rise in water temperature and changes in salinity and light conditions \u2014 the hallmarks of a changing climate. With their livelihoods devastated, most of the farmers sought out jobs in the tourism industry.<\/p>\n
Indonesia was the world leader in the production of E. cottonii before 2014, churning out more than 8 million tons a year. Today it\u2019s No. 2, after China, but still supplies 38% of the global seaweed market.<\/p>\n
But the tide is turning once again in Nusa Lembongan. The local government wants to employ an additional 100 seaweed farmers in Lembongan Bay through a program that hands out 0.8 hectares (2 acres) per farmer to grow seaweed. The waters around Nusa Lembongan could potentially host up to 500 seaweed farmers. Prices are up, along with prospects for Eucheuma seaweed, which is used to make carrageenan, a thickener and stabilizer used in foods, cosmetics and industrial products. In countries like Indonesia and the Philippines, the macroalgae is also consumed as food.<\/p>\n
Suarbawa says he makes about 15 million rupiah (about $1,000) a month \u2014 six times the minimum wage in Bali \u2014 just from selling seaweed to visitors coming from the capital, Jakarta. Suarbawa is also involved in plans for an ecotourism initiative in Nusa Lembongan that will bring tourists to snorkel among the algae.<\/p>\n
But the threat of climate change and the potential for another bacterial outbreak still linger over Lembongan Bay. This part of Bali has also lost a number of seaweed farms to tourism developments, clearing of wetlands, and pollution. To ensure a more resilient seaweed-farming industry this time around, the farmers will have to develop more resistant varieties of algae, experts say.<\/p>\n
\u201cClimate change and the accompanying El Ni\u00f1o will significantly destroy seaweed farming in Indonesia,\u201d says Ketut Sudiarta, a scientist in the fisheries department at Bali\u2019s Warmadewa University. \u201cThis has happened now. Almost all of Indonesia has failed and most of [the farms] have been abandoned by farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n
But if the industry succeeds, it could become a weapon in the fight against climate change. The algae grow quickly \u2014 30 to 60 times faster than land-based plants \u2014 and absorb carbon dioxide from the water and atmosphere. If cultivated at scale, that makes it an important carbon sink, which can then be harvested and used as a biofuel in place of fossil fuels.<\/p>\n
It could also be the solution to that other environmental bane in Bali: plastic waste, of which Indonesia is the world\u2019s second-biggest contributor, after China. Seaweed can be processed to make food containers \u2014 biodegradable, edible even \u2014 that could replace the conventional single-use plastic containers that account for much of the trash fouling Bali\u2019s beaches and seas.<\/p>\n
According to Sudiarta, \u201cit\u2019s very possible, especially for the big brands,\u201d to make the switch from plastic containers to seaweed-based packaging. For now, though, a host of small companies are pioneering that effort.<\/p>\n
\u2018Seaweed over plastic\u2019<\/p>\n
David Christian started his company, Evoware, in 2016, in response to the plastic waste crisis in his hometown of Jakarta. He makes edible seaweed cups under the Ello Jello brand that come in various colors and flavors, from orange to green tea. The company also produces edible food wrapping and single-use sachets, typically used for instant coffee or food condiments.<\/p>\n
At a restaurant in central Jakarta that serves ice cream in Evoware cups, Christian explains how his initiative is more than just a corporate venture.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to support the farmers in making a living from a sustainable source,\u201d he says, dressed in a T-shirt with the slogan \u201cSeaweed over plastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSeaweed does not take up land, it doesn\u2019t lead to deforestation, and no fertilizers are used,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
Christian is involved in a 4Rs campaign \u2014 reduce, reuse, recycle, replace \u2014 that aims to reach a million people with its sustainable goals. Evoware\u2019s social involvement sees youths at orphanages in Jakarta, Bali and Malaysia produce and sell Ello Jello cups and keep the profit. Production is limited at present, about 500 per day, and testing is still going on. But orders have come from 900 companies in 52 countries, and Christian says full-scale industrial production of containers and cups should happen later this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe demand for these products will only increase, and the cost of production will decrease,\u201d he says, adding that reactions have been positive and that he welcomes other companies exploring similar solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all have the same goal of beating the conventional plastics,\u201d Christian says. \u201cThe market is enormous and we need many players, so why compete with one another?\u201d<\/p>\n
Future of bioplastics<\/p>\n
One such company is Avani Eco, based in Bali and producing shopping bags (printed with \u201cI am not plastic\u201d) from cassava fiber since 2014. It also makes drinking straws from paper and cornstarch, as well as food boxes from bagasse, the dry, fibrous residue from sugarcane processing. The company garnered widespread attention when co-founder Kevin Kumala dissolved one of his bags in lukewarm water and drank it, to emphasize that it was non-toxic and entirely biodegradable.<\/p>\n
While new technological advances have blown the field of bioplastics wide open, seaweed holds the most promise due to its versatility and the sheer scale of current production. The global seaweed market was valued at more than $4 billion in 2017 and is estimated to pass $9 billion by 2024, about 90% of it E. cottonii. Food production is still the main destination for the crop, and expected to keep growing, but alternative uses are being explored. These include seaweed as biomass for fuel, as well as for use in fertilizers, animal feed, and wastewater treatment.<\/p>\n
Back in Nusa Lembongan, seaweed is being put in service to the area\u2019s predominant industry: tourism. Komang Astawa, 33, is one of the island\u2019s three newly trained seaweed farmers, the recipient of a 2-acre patch in the bay with 400 lines of seaweed. He plans this year to start taking tourists on snorkeling trips on his seaweed farm.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to show tourists how we grow the seaweed, and how we harvest it,\u201d Astawa says. \u201cSeaweed is a big business. There are many ways to make money in it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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