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Harvesting beach-cast can help mitigate marine eutrophication by closing land-marine nutrient loops and provide a blue biomass raw material for the bioeconomy. Cost–benefit analysis was applied to harvest activities during 2009–2018 on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, highlighting benefits such as nutrient removal from the marine system and improved recreational opportunities as well as costs of using inputs necessary for harvest. The results indicate that the activities entailed a net gain to society, lending substance to continued funding for harvests on Gotland and assessments of upscaling of harvest activities to other areas in Sweden and elsewhere. The lessons learnt from the considerable harvest experience on Gotland should be utilized for developing concrete guidelines for carrying out sustainable harvest practice, paying due attention to local conditions but also to what can be generalized to a wider national and international context., QC 20220613

A blue-green bioeconomy revolution is underway in Europe, with particular attention being paid to the development of new or underutilized marine biomass resources. The wild harvest and mariculture of low-trophic non-fed species of marine biomass may be contributing to circular economies, the mitigation of environmental problems such as eutrophication and climate change through the uptake of nutrients and carbon, while also recovering finite phosphorus from marine coastal environments, thus contributing to food security. The present study provides a cradle-to-gate life cycle perspective on seven established or innovative/emerging marine biomass utilization cases in Sweden: mariculture of sugar kelp, blue mussels, and ascidians and the harvest of invasive Pacific oysters along the Skagerrak coast, the mariculture of blue mussels in the Baltic sea, the harvest of common reed in the Stockholm archipelago, and the harvest of beach-cast seaweed in Gotland. Results showed that the mariculture cases were found to contribute to eutrophication and climate impact mitigation (at gate). All cases were found to contribute to closing the loop on phosphorus by enabling recovery from marine or coastal environments, bridging marine–land flows, all while performing well from an environmental perspective with a relatively low cumulative energy demand and low carbon and nutrient footprints. This highlights the potential of low-trophic biomass to contribute to phosphorus security in the future, and demonstrates the value of industrial ecology tools such as LCA in support of this imminent Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development., QC 20211110

Local stakeholder participation in water management is emphasized in the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD). Wetland creation to mitigate nutrient leakage from agriculture is one example where participation of local farmers is needed. In this case study of the Himmerfjärden coastal catchment area, south of Stockholm, Sweden, we assessed both the importance of several demo-graphic factors, and of the main subsidy factors in the present Agri-Environmental Scheme (AES) for their effects on farmers’ willingness to create wetlands on their farms. The farm and farmer characteristics analyzed were age, gender, knowledge of the WFD, education, farm size, land ownership, current measures to reduce nutrient leakage and trust for other actors. The main factors from the AES were defined as five attributes in a discrete choice experiment approach related to the current agri-environmental policy instrument for wetland creation applied in the area. The results showed that approximately 30 % of the farmers were interested in wetland creation at their farms. The most common reason for not wanting to create a wetland was economic cost. Males were significantly more willing than females to create wetlands. Younger farmers were significantly more willing than older. Prior knowledge of the WFD increased willingness almost threefold, and land owners were significantly more willing than leaseholders. The choice experiment showed that higher cost ceiling for subsidies, higher compensation percentage and higher annual subsidies can significantly increase the willingness to create wetlands. However to attract also the remaining 70% of all farmers to join the AES we must look at other options than only using action based AES., QS 2015

Stakeholder participation is increasingly important in water governance worldwide. In Europe, the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires Member states to encourage the active involvement of stakeholders in planning and implementation of the WFD. In Sweden, eutrophication is one of the major water quality problems, which is primarily caused by diffuse nutrient leakage from agriculture. Farmers are, therefore, increasingly invited to participate in local water groups to discuss potential local action to mitigate nutrient leakage. This paper presents the lessons learnt from two Swedish catchments, where farmers and other local stakeholders participated in local water groups. Both catchments have severe eutrophication problems, and have been pointed out as “hot-spots” for wetland creation as mitigation measure. The overall aim of this study was to identify farmers’ primary concerns regarding local water management and wetland creation in particular. The results were based on data from meeting observation, interviews and a questionnaire. The paper identified four major aspects: (i) farmers’ concern about the commitment of other actors in local action plans; (ii) farmers desired improved information on local water management, monitoring of water quality, as well as improved information on wetland creation; (iii) farmers were concerned about phosphorus scarcity, and were interested in wetlands as phosphor traps; and, (iv) farmers requested developments in catchment-based platforms. Therefore, the paper suggests that organization of water management at catchment level could play an important role to cope with farmers’ primary concerns: Catchment platforms should disseminate information on local water management, identify information and data gaps, distribute responsibilities and commitment, enhance incentives for farmers’ commitment and enable trust-building. Consideration of these aspects could lead towards more robust forms for participation, inducing action and, con, QS 2015

Stakeholder participation is increasingly important in water governance worldwide. In Europe, the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) requires Member states to encourage the active involvement of stakeholders in planning and implementation of the WFD. In Sweden, eutrophication is one of the major water quality problems, which is primarily caused by diffuse nutrient leakage from agriculture. Farmers are, therefore, increasingly invited to participate in local water groups to discuss potential local action to mitigate nutrient leakage. This paper presents the lessons learnt from two Swedish catchments, where farmers and other local stakeholders participated in local water groups. Both catchments have severe eutrophication problems, and have been pointed out as “hot-spots” for wetland creation as mitigation measure. The overall aim of this study was to identify farmers’ primary concerns regarding local water management and wetland creation in particular. The results were based on data from meeting observation, interviews and a questionnaire. The paper identified four major aspects: (i) farmers’ concern about the commitment of other actors in local action plans; (ii) farmers desired improved information on local water management, monitoring of water quality, as well as improved information on wetland creation; (iii) farmers were concerned about phosphorus scarcity, and were interested in wetlands as phosphor traps; and, (iv) farmers requested developments in catchment-based platforms. Therefore, the paper suggests that organization of water management at catchment level could play an important role to cope with farmers’ primary concerns: Catchment platforms should disseminate information on local water management, identify information and data gaps, distribute responsibilities and commitment, enhance incentives for farmers’ commitment and enable trust-building. Consideration of these aspects could lead towards more robust forms for participation, inducing action and, con, Som manuskript i avhandling. As manuscript in dissertation.