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Hydropower comes with a lot of inestimable values. It is indubitably an eco‐system‐friendly resource that causes no harm to the natural state of the environment. This creates a better alternative to the heat energy radiating the earth. It is a cost‐efficient source of energy and it offers unique opportunities to have cost‐efficient tourism sector management in the EU region centers. The primary objective of this research is to determine the effect of hydropower output on tourism sustainability in the European Union (EU 27) states from 1990 to 2021. The autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) was adopted for this study. Findings from this study show that a significant increase in the tourism sector growth can occur in EU14 emerging economies using hydropower output and economic growth variables than in EU13 emerging economies. In addition, among other variables captured in this study, population density and good governance were seen to have a higher level of contribution to tourism sector growth in EU14 emerging economies than in EU13 emerging economies. It was also found that a significant increase in the tourism sector growth could be achieved in the EU13 emerging economies due to the high consumption of fossil fuels than in EU14 emerging economies. This finding implies that the EU27 could achieve sustainability in their tourism sector significantly through the substitution of fossil fuel output with hydropower. This will foster the attainment of Energy Union aims by 2030. It is also a good way to combat climate change and environmental pollution. Using the pooled mean group (PMG), mean group (MG), and dynamic fixed effect (DFE) methods, the projected calculations were seen to be valid. The study, therefore, recommended that EU27 countries should prioritize hydropower in their pursuit of renewable energy production as this will help them to achieve sustainability in their tourism sector and become secure in their energy need now and in the future time. The government, Politicians, and all other concerned stakeholders in the EU27 countries should strive towards replacing fossil fuels with hydropower. This will help to ensure sustainability in their tourism sector and there will be security in the energy sector of these EU27 Countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaculture is a growing industry with an annual growth rate that is far superior to the population growth rate. Most production occurs in lower‐ and middle‐income countries, and therefore, they can improve the efficiency and modernize the production systems to increase exports to earn foreign exchange earnings for economic and social development. The institutional arrangements should be part of the mechanisms that ensure sustainable aquaculture growth, through the participation of all stakeholders. Sustainability is possible with good and dynamic governance through which the industry embraces the basic principles of governance, equity, accountability, efficiency, and predictability. Over the past decade, several countries made changes in governance and implemented regulations through their action plans to improve aquaculture productivity, and stakeholders profited from the changes made along the value chain. For the producers to benefit from the value‐added products, they complied with the regulations imposed by the importing countries, international regulatory bodies, or their own consumers. Standards increased, and the implementation of certification resulted in changes in the industrial structure. These standards, which inflict regulatory cost on producers, stimulated an improvement in productivity and product quality. However, during the last decade, production growth declined from 5.8% from 2001 to 2010 to 4.5% from 2011 to 2018, resulting in the elusive realization of the potential of meeting the sustainable development targets. There is a need for a paradigm shift that encourages small‐scale producers to engage in sustainable intensive aquaculture. The challenge is, therefore, to move toward production intensification and expansion, and the harmonization of national and international regulations to ensure the supply of safe and adequate fish to consumers, while maintaining a sustainable production system, and at the same time conserving the environment and maintaining social and economic stability. With good governance and political will, the social, economic, and environmental objectives for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals during the period 2020–2030 are possible if governments integrate sustainable aquaculture developments within an expanded aquatic and terrestrial food security policy framework using systems thinking and open innovation approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consumption of aquatic products in China continues to grow and encourages the expansion of aquaculture farms. The examination of factors influencing expenditures on all aquatic products, freshwater fish, squid/octopus, and shellfish uses survey data collected from residents of Shanghai, China. The use of the Tobit modeling approach identified socio-demographic variables such as income, aquatic product safety perceptions, and preferences for quality as significant determinants of expenditures on aquatic product categories. Expenditures tend to increase with age, but the effect of education varies with regard to specific categories, suggesting distinct choices of educated consumers. Wives tend to spend substantially less on aquatic products than husbands. Knowledge of past sickness due to ingestion of aquatic products causes expenditures to drop in all categories, while quality certification, certified organic origin, and certified aquaculture products increase expenditure in selected categories. Monitoring consumer socio-demographic profiles and establishing transparent quality certification systems will benefit aquaculture farms and aquatic product marketers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustained growth of global meat consumption incentivized the development of the meat substitute industry. However, long-term global commercialization of meat substitutes faces challenges that arise from technological innovation, limited consumer awareness, and an imperfect regulatory environment. Many important questions require urgent answers. This paper presents a review of issues affecting meat substitute manufacturing and marketing, and helps to bridge important gaps which appear in the literature. To date, global research on meat substitutes focuses mainly on technology enhancement, cost reduction, and commercialization with a few studies focused on a regulatory perspective. Furthermore, the studies on meat substitute effects on environmental pollution reduction, safety, and ethical risk perception are particularly important. A review of these trends leads to conclusions which anticipate the development of a much broader market for the meat substitute industry over the long term, the gradual discovery of solutions to technical obstacles, upgraded manufacturing, the persistent perception of ethical risk and its influence on consumer willingness to accept meat substitutes, and the urgent need for constructing an effective meat substitute regulatory system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Changes in the consumption price of aquatic products will affect demand and fishermen's income. The accurate prediction of consumer price index provides important information regarding the aquatic product market. Based on the non-linear and non-smooth characteristics of fishery product price series, this paper innovatively proposes a fishery product price forecasting model that is based on Variational Modal Decomposition and Improved bald eagle search algorithm optimized Long Short Term Memory Network (VMD-IBES-LSTM). Empirical analysis was conducted using fish price data from the Department of Marketing and Informatization of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China. The proposed model in this study was subsequently compared with common forecasting models such as VMD-LSTM and SSA-LSTM. The research results show that the VMD-IBES-LSTM model that was constructed in this paper has good fitting results and high prediction accuracy, which can better explain the seasonality and trends of the change of China's aquatic product consumer price index, provide a scientific and effective method for relevant management departments and units to predict the aquatic product consumer price, and have a certain reference value for reasonably coping with the fluctuation of China's aquatic product market price. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world's growing population requires an adequate supply of protein to maintain food security, but animal protein production is limited by the finite resources of land, fresh water, and ocean capacity. Several meat substitutes offer protein alternatives that may improve food security in less-developed economies. However, perceptions of difference in the ethical risk associated with consumption of plant-based substitutes (PM) vs. cultured meat (CM) may affect purchases of these products. This study examined differences in ethical risk perception using online survey data gathered in 2020. An ordered logit technique yielded the probabilities of changes in ethical risk perception influenced by demographic attributes, views about the technology, and adequacy of industry regulations. The results show that consumers associated PM with low ethical risk. Educated consumers were more likely to agree that the ethical risks of CM are higher than PM and to regard PM products as safer than CM. Price sensitivity made consumers more likely to agree that the ethical risks related to CM are higher than those related to PM. Ingredient safety concerns increased the ethical risk perception of CM. Consumers perceiving the meat substitute classification to be unclear were more likely to assign a higher ethical risk to CM than PM. The perception of ethical risk associated with CM was greater than that associated with PM if meat substitute industry regulations were inadequate. The results suggest a need to provide verifiable information about each type of meat substitute as well as transparent and understandable standards and rules before these products can improve protein availability and food security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have emerged as an innovative model for the delivery of infrastructure and public services on a global scale. These collaborations, which unite businesses, governmental bodies, and civil society stakeholders, are actively advocated for their capacity to pool essential financial resources. Simultaneously, they offer a strategic approach to mitigating risks associated with sector-specific operations and addressing intricate developmental challenges. PPPs leverages wider resources and capabilities and could have greater impacts, which have been widely adopted in various sectors such as infrastructure, health, education, and environment. In recent years, PPPs have also emerged as a promising tool to promote the development of aquaculture sector, which is the fastest growing food production sector in the world. However, PPPs in aquaculture sector have yet not to be widely adopted or well understood. We address this research gap by describing a successful PPP model in aquaculture sector based on a case study of Hani Terrace integrated rice-fish farming system in China. This research analyzes the type, structures, partner roles and partnership of the Hani Terrace PPP model, and it also examines the major challenges encountered and the development outcomes achieved by these projects. The results showed that the Aquaculture PPP created positive outcomes for different parterners and stimulated increased economic, social and environmental benefits from targeted interventions. This research intends to offer valuable insights and recommendations for policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and local communities keen on advancing the PPP model within the aquaculture sector. Additionally, the research identifies gaps and outlines directions for future studies in PPP development in the aquaculture sector. The research results seek to enhance the comprehension of all stakeholders involved in crafting successful PPP initiatives and improving service delivery. • Public-private partnerships (PPPs) have emerged as an innovative model and a promising tool to promote the development of aquaculture sector, involving government entities, private companies, research institutes, and farmers, contributes financial resources, expertise, innovation, and proficiency in managing intricate social processes. • Forming a successful partnership necessitates the establishment of shared objectives and the development of robust business cases. • This case study aligns with global research on aquaculture PPPs and highlights the importance of collaborative partnerships, financing structures, and equitable resource distribution for success in aquaculture development. They need to set common goals and strong business cases aiming to align the interests and risks of public and private partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Aquatic products processing industry (APPI) in China has been developing for several decades and is becoming a pillar sector in China's fisheries industry. There are some problems in the development of this industry, such as significantly lower-than-world-average APP ratio, improper regional structures, weakly development in freshwater products processing, and lower profit margin from processing. Scope and approach This study aims to provide a whole picture of China's aquatic products processing (APP) Industry. It also describes an overview of the development of aquatic product industry and evolutions of policies and regulation in China. Key findings and conclusions The findings indicated China's Aquatic product industry has progressed significantly in the past decades. The total products of the APPI gradually increased from 0.6 million tons in 1978 to 20 million tons in 2014. The ratio between aquatic products processing output and aquatic products output rose from 0.13 in 1996 to 0.32 in 2014, and the number of processing firms substantially increased during this period. Since 2004, the quality of the APPI gradually improved, and the APPI value-added rate increased from 29.76% in 2004 to 37.28% in 2014. Some remarkable issues still exist in the process of APPI. Further policies need to focus on better industrial development planning, favorable tax for intensive processing sectors, as well as reinforced R&D and policy supports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aquaculture is threatened by the climate change which includes changes in temperature, precipitation, drought, storms and floods. The socio-economic impacts of climate change on aquaculture are difficult to assess due to the uncertainties regarding the extent and rate of predicted changes. By including bond indexes as climate change variables, this study constructed a provincial-level panel data set to estimate the profits and productivity of the Chinese aquaculture. Results indicate that aquaculture production has heterogeneous responses to climate change. However, the majority of climate variables, including extreme weather events and long-term climate changes, strongly affect aquaculture profits. Future research needs to focus on designing suitable adaptation measures in an interdisciplinary setting to address the challenges from natural risks and economic volatility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on food supply values, the basis of eco-service values, and their factors of different pond aquaculture ecosystems are helpful to explain the influences of the inputted factors and their variations among these ecosystems and provide information for stakeholders to adjust their decisions and behaviors to increase their total eco-service values. On the basis of continued records from 2011 to 2012 of 18 ponds of three pond aquaculture ecosystems, namely Litopenaeus vannamei, Macrobrachium nippponensis and carp fresh water pond aquaculture ecosystems in Qingpu, Fengxian, and Jiading, three suburban districts of Shang, this paper analyzed the costs, returns, net food supply values and their regional and temporal fluctuations. The results showed that: (1) the net food supply values of the three ecosystems are 143252.4, 135883.7, and 52623.1Yuan/Ha in 2011 correspondently, with the Litopenaeus vannamei pond aquaculture ecosystem (LVPAE) ranking highest and the carp pond aquaculture ecosystem (CPAE) lowest among them, and the trend was same in 2012, but the values decreased than that of 2011 with the rate of 30.0%( LVPAE), 38.0 %( Macrobrachium nippponensis pond aquaculture ecosystem, MNPAE) and 13.7 %( CPAE). (2)The dominant factors of the net food supply values of these ecosystems are the produce price and variable costs; fry and feed costs are the main variable factors producing the noticeable difference among the ecosystems. (3) The cost-benefit ratio of per unit product of the CPAE, LVPAE and MNPAE changed from 27.5%,91.7%,129.0% in 2011 to 23.0%,73.8% and 63.8% in 2012, with the CPAE ranked lowest among them in both years.(4) For all the three ecosystems, their net food supply values may not always change in same trends with their net eco-service values, if stakeholders want to keep an balance between these two types of values, MNPAE should be encouraged in these districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Octopus vulgaris is fished by both small-scale and industrial fleets and has great social and economic value. Octopuses are fished in intertidal and subtidal areas using various fishing gear, with trawling used by industrial fleets and hand jigs, pots, traps, and trammel nets used by small-scale fleets. Over the years, the octopus has consistently been one of the most important commercial cephalopod resources in Senegal. Given the high economic value of octopus in Senegal, this paper discusses octopus management, as well as the industry's direct impacts on the biological traits of octopus. Survey data reveals that there are some differences in the octopus management preferences within Mbour; however, in general, fishers support biological rest and the use of octopus spawning pots. This study examines the socioeconomic importance of octopus and their management by scientifically analyzing the octopus fishery in Senegal. Octopuses have a short life span (12–14 months), grow rapidly, and have high natural mortality due to its sensitivity to environmental conditions. Therefore, the abundance index decreased from 13.7 kg per days at sea in 1999 to 3.3 kg per days at sea in 2016 due to seasonal fluctuations. Meanwhile, landing volumes notably increased from 2980 t in 1997 to 5932 t in 2016. Octopuses are typically destined for the European and Asian markets, with an export volume of 4886 t and gross revenue of US$26 million in 2016. However, this species is fully exploited, demonstrating the need for increased involvement of fishers in the management decision-making process. • Octopus is fully-exploited by small-scale and industrial fishing. • Biological rest is the ideal measure for octopus protection. • Octopus is a short life span and large variations of landing volumes. • The price fluctuations depend on the weight and size of the species. • The increase in the income is due to the variation of season. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]