About the project
Our aquatic ecosystems are in trouble. Human activity is changing the biogeochemistry of the planet.
Our coastal areas are suffering from mass tourism, corporate interests, ageing populations, a lack of opportunities for young people, with fisheries and local food production in decline.
In a changing climate with increasingly volatile supply chains, it is vital for rural and coastal communities to retain and strengthen their food and economic sovereignty.
Communities don’t need government intervention to adapt to the climate, biodiversity, energy and economic crises. They can self-organise and develop their own solutions.
Gaining access to marine space is an increasingly competitive, expensive and bureaucratic process, which prevents regular people from using this amazing resource or playing an active role in its conservation, instead passing costs onto local authorities.
At a transnational level, COOL BLUE will help communities and local authorities work together to establish a network of regenerative ocean farming initiatives across Europe and beyond.
By developing common frameworks to assess, prepare and operationalise new farm sites, COOL BLUE will lobby policymakers to give local people a voice in the management of their coastal and marine areas to allow both ecological restoration and regenerative business development.
Our mission
To give everyone the opportunity to support their local community ocean farm.
The COOL BLUE project will create a Northern European network of community-led initiatives in the Baltic and North Sea basins, initially focusing on three pilot regions in Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
The team will talk to local communities to assess different business models based on community-scale regenerative aquaculture, including potential spin-offs and collaborations with existing local businesses.
Alongside business models, assessment of the latest scientific research on ecosystem restoration will inform a Regenerative Ocean Farming Manifesto.
The project will develop educational material, regulatory and socioeconomic assessments, innovative monitoring techniques and recommendations for the strategic “out-scaling” of regenerative community aquaculture in Northern Europe and beyond.
Cool Blue Baltic
Outscaling regenerative ocean farming throughout the Baltic Sea.
Cool Blue Baltic is an EMFAF flagship project (ID: 101124475) which aims to facilitate the diversification of fishers into low-trophic aquaculture in all Baltic European Member States, while also supporting new regenerative aquaculture initiatives.
The project will run for 2 years, in the first year assessing socioeconomic, regulatory and environmental aspects.
In the second year, the project will seek to establish a network of regenerative ocean farms across the Baltic, with a common licensing framework, a crowdfunder, a data-sharing network, an MPA stewardship programme and online training platform.
The two Cool Blue projects are complementary by nature, extending the reach and impact of regenerative farming initiatives to be part of an emerging global movement to restore our oceans and create jobs in the process.