About us
Become a member
The Global Seaweed Coalition is a global partnership established to support the safety and sustainability of the seaweed industry as it scales up and to unite a fragmented market through a unified vision and goals. As it develops, Coalition members will represent the entire seaweed value chain – from smallholder farmers to multinational businesses, specialized research institutes to intergovernmental organisations – working together to realize the full potential of the seaweed industry and to ensure its safety for consumers, for workers and for the environment.
Our objectives
Our aim is for members of the Global Seaweed Coalition to work together to establish a seaweed industry that provides safe products, safe working conditions and environmental protection as it grows. Together, we strive to help the seaweed sector develop into an industry that will make a significant contribution to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals through improving public health and food security, alleviating poverty, renewing marine ecosystems, and mitigating climate change.
Our work focuses on three key aspects of safety:
Consumer safety
Defining commonly agreed safety standards for seaweed products used by consumers.
Environmental safety
Ensuring scaled-up production and processing of seaweed is sustainable and restores ecosystems.
Operational safety
Ensuring the welfare of workers is protected at every stage of the seaweed value chain.
Coalition members endorse the Seaweed Manifesto that was released in 2020 by the Lloyd’s Register Foundation and United Nations Global Compact’s Sustainable Ocean Business Action Platform.
Our Approach
Twice a year the Global Seaweed Coalition will call for proposals on the topics we should be investigating and the projects we should be launching. This will be a competitive process, with all proposals considered by our Scientific and Strategic Advisory Councils; the topics that are taken forward will reflect the views of these two committees and of our members. Funded activities are generally expected to leverage larger projects under international, national or joint initiative funding programmes.
As a coalition, we are driven by collaboration between members to establish the resilient foundation the seaweed industry needs to scale up, responsibly and sustainably, and to deliver on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. To ensure that everything we do genuinely improves the seaweed industry, we have a simple but effective approach – Coordination, Foundation, Amplification – to drive measurable improvement through the industry. Our ‘bottom up’ approach will ensure we fully understand both the safety issues and the challenges faced by producers and manufacturers. This approach unifies our members, keeping us focused on the most urgent challenges, and will ensure we advocate for the shared interests of the entire industry.
Everything we learn through our programmes and projects will be shared and delivered publicly, informing our members’ operations, supporting evidence-based policy making, and helping to unlock the full potential of seaweed.
