The Nexus approach to natural resources management

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Figure 1. A VOSviewer bibliometric visualization for the keywords, “nexus”, “transformative” and “tools”.

The word and concept of most interest for me this year is nexus, defined broadly as a connected group or series. When placed in the context of natural resources management, a nexus framework renders a system of systems perspective. But which fields of knowledge are reflected in research and current business practices in natural resources management, and how are these various fields of study and business sectors interconnected?

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Book chapter publications, edited series

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Chapter 2 Emerging management concepts in an era of global transitions:Co-management of natural resources and the Swedish management style.

Reference Cordeiro, C. M. (2021). Emerging management concepts in an era of global transitions: Co-management of natural resources and the Swedish management style. In Saruchera, F. (Ed.), Advanced Perspectives on Global Industry Transitions and Business Opportunities (pp. 21-39). IGI Global. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-4303-0.ch002

Abstract In a period of global transition, this chapter discusses emerging management practices in the context of natural resources management in international business. In the past decades, the co-management concept and practice have been of increasing interest to scholars in ecology management and marine environment management. In the late 1980s, the Swedish management style began to be explicitly de-bated with scholarly interest, particularly in the services industry after observing successful business practices. The literature on the co-management of natural resources and the Swedish management style in multinational enterprises point promisingly towards parallel management strategies applied in dis-tinctly different working environments and contexts. Based on empirical data, this chapter’s objective is to highlight and distill from natural resources co-management and the Swedish management style a shared management best-practice approach in working contexts that have multiple actors and stakehold-ers who hold multicentric agendas.

Chapter 9 Culture from a value systems perspective: A study of CATCH, an interdisciplinary research project in fisheries and aquaculture in Norway

Reference Cordeiro, C.M. & Sogn-Grundvåg, G. (2020). Culture from a value systems perspective: A study of CATCH, an interdisciplinary research project in fisheries and aquaculture in Norway. In R. Brunet-Thornton (ed), Examining Cultural Perspectives in a Globalized World. Hershey, PA: IGI Global. doi: 10.4018/978-1-7998-0214-3

Abstract International interdisciplinary projects (IDR) are a microcosm of multicultural landscapes. Through a culture theories perspective, in particular, viewing culture as a system of explicitly and implicitly coded values, this chapter conveys the processes and results of a study that investigates and uncovers the management strategies of an IDR project, CATCH. The study of culture from a value systems approach enables a more subtle and nuanced approach to the analysis and framing of cultural heterogeneity in the context of an IDR project, beyond the often dichotomous, cultural dimensions construct. Due to the multiple actors in an IDR project, the example of CATCH illustrates too, a more nuanced view of cultural filters that arise from each academic discipline. Using the culture as value systems perspective, this chapter shows how multicultural landscapes and different resulting knowledges can be leveraged towards an integrated worldview when solving challenges in a globalized world with limited resources.

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Vertical farms and the complex relationships between energy use in food systems, food production and energy resource constraints

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

From 2016, standing in a group discussion with Jack Ng, who is an engineer, and the Founder of Sky Greens Singapore. Sky Greens was founded in 2012.
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2021

The current Horizon Europe Work Programme 2021-2022 for Food, Bioeconomy Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment [1] acknowledges a need to address the complex relationships between energy use in food systems, food system productivity and energy resource constraints. Product type, mode of transport, food waste, energy-related food system greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and energy efficiencies in geographies of production along with economies of scale are some of the interacting variables in the food-energy network [2,3]

In Sweden, about 26% of the greenhouse gases emitted come from agricultural activities [2]. Traditional farming practices and food production techniques concurrent with urbanization and globalization are energy intensive. With concurrent urbanization, globalization and changes in demography, the importance of energy use in food systems has become a global food security concern [3], particularly when some studies have shown that crop yields increase in close association with energy inputs [4].

The European regional concerns reminded me of a visit to Sky Greens in Singapore in 2016. I was in Singapore to attend the Responsible Business Forum conference held at Marina Bay Sands, and I had the opportunity too at the time, to visit the world´s first low carbon, hydraulic driven vertical vegetable farm and meet its Founder, Jack Ng.

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Bi-lateral learning in natural resources co-management and the Swedish management style

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Crab from the Swedish west coast, Sweden.
Text & Photo © Pixabay Ylvers-337353, JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

As I began reading more literature on marine and fisheries management, I observed how management concepts in the field of natural resources management were framed differently than those found in international business (IB) studies.

Most IB management theories focused on the efficiency of the processes of the manufacturing sector and firm internationalization strategies [1, 2], whereas natural resources management had the ecological dimension factored into their management models and strategies even if their processes included global manufacturing [3, 4]. I would today reason that IB studies also encompasses an ecological dimension, but they are framed predominantly from the perspective of human resources management or organizational culture and behaviour.

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Seagriculture 2019 “Seaweed Success Stories”

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Mussel served with seaweed pesto and a side of Arame seaweed, by pioneering Seaweed chef Donald Deschagt, Ostend, Belgium for Seagriculture 2019 dinner. The following article also appears on Forskning.no, Fra Fjord til bord.
Text & Photo © JW van Hal, JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

An impromptu session of new product testing with a group of friends in northern Norway ensued after I returned from a seaweed trade fair with new product samples of chocolate infused with seaweed or chocolate seaweed. I grew up in Singapore, and one of my first encounters at age of about five with seaweed was at a cousin´s wedding dinner. Seaweed is often served in conjunction with jellyfish at Chinese wedding banquets as cold dish appetizers. As such, I had taken for granted that the chocolate seaweed samples would bring positive reviews with thereafter queries of where to purchase such chocolate bars or when do we see them at the local grocery stores in Tromsø. But the immediate reactions to the chocolate seaweed was tepid at best. Most concluded that chocolate infused with seaweed was not a palatable product, and that a perfectly good product like chocolate was ruined.

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Ecology values in seaweed aquaculture: A visit to Ocean Rainforest, Færoe Islands 2019

Posted on by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro

Air dried seaweed at Ocean Rainforest, Færoe Islands 2019. Ocean Rainforest produces high quality seaweed of various types. The seaweed are farmed in the pristine offshore waters of the Færoe Islands. Their products include Saccharina Latissima (sugarkelp/kombu/breiðbløðkutur sukurtari), Alaria Esculenta (winged seaweed/wakame), Laminaria Digitata (tangæe / oarweed/tarablað) and Palmaria Palmata (dulse/dilisk/søl).(Ocean Rainforest, 2010)
Text & Photo © JE Nilsson & CM Cordeiro 2019

Ecology values of seaweed aquaculture

The use of marine algae/seaweed in culinary presentations and gastronomy in Far Eastern countries such as China, Japan, South Korea and parts of Southeast-Asia is well known. In Scandinavia however, seaweed is mainly associated with humble origins, local coastal activities and historical narratives (Efstathiou & Myskja, 2018). In Norway, seaweed was regularly washed ashore during storms, making harvest of the seaweed accessible for use for animal feed and as soil fertiliser (Indergaard, 2010). During the 18th century in the Scandinavian coastal regions, seaweed was also gathered to produce potash and soda ash that were used for cleaning and to make glass. The alginate industry blossomed in the 1960s in Norway when seaweed was harvested manually from the coast for applications in the food industry as a thickening agent.

Moving on about fifty years to modernity, the past decade has witnessed a (re)discovery of seaweed as a natural resource and raw produce. Seaweed is increasingly studied and understood for its fundamental grounding in ecological values that are much needed in the management of today´s natural resources and marine environments. Seaweed is proving to be not only a valuable industry resource with potential applications as biofuel that can help mitigate carbon dioxide emissions in terms of substitution for fossil fuels (Milledge, Smith, Dyer, & Harvey, 2014), but it can also help with global adaptation to the effects of extreme weather condition in a warming hemisphere, for example, by damping wave energy and protecting shorelines, and by increasing oxygen supply in the waters that mitigate ocean acidification (Duarte, Wu, Xiao, Bruhn, & Krause-Jensen, 2017).

To that extent, the aquaculture of seaweed is the fastest-growing component of global food production (FAO, 2018). And while that is good news, considering the increasing market demand and applications of seaweed in various industries, seaweed aquaculture is currently constrained due to competition for suitable aquaculture areas. Other challenges that seaweed aquaculture faces are inadequate engineering systems capable of coping with rough offshore conditions, such as the type of weather we encountered for the day, on our way to visit Ocean Rainforest, as well as the lack of environmentally friendly automated harvesting and processing technologies.

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