Coast 4C’s seaweed benefits our 4Cs: Communities, Commerce, Conservation and Climate

Traceable at source, sustainable seaweed, making underdeveloped communities self-sufficient, addressing environmental conservation, and the future of food security.

Watch the Coast 4C explainer
Video courtesy of World Economic Forum 2022

World Economic Forum video about Coast 4C’s innovation turning seaweed farmers into ocean and climate champions. Coast 4C is a winner of the UpLink Blue Food Challenge.

Video courtesy of RE:TV 2022

RE:TV, part of The Sustainable Markets Initiative, is a showcase for inspiring innovations and ideas that point the way towards a sustainable future. This short film explores Coast 4C’s work on regenerative seaweed aquaculture.

Why should we care?

Community

Small-scale fishers provide 50% of the world’s seafood and 90% of fisheries employment. But they are marginalised by exploitative value chains that drive unsustainable fishing and deepening poverty

Conservation & Climate

The ocean provides 70% of our oxygen, 17% of animal protein, and it has buffered climate change impacts. But it is on the brink of collapse

Commerce

Seaweed is a more efficient seedstock for bioplastics and sustainable food than land crops, and provides habitat for fish. But it is limited by underinvesting in small-scale fishers

We aim to build the world’s largest supply of regenerative seaweed, benefiting the 4Cs of Communities, Commerce, Conservation and Climate.

We have a proven track record

Coast 4C is a social enterprise launched by ZSL in 2020 to drive ocean and climate restoration through inclusive value chains for regenerative seaweed and end-of-life fishing nets. Coast 4C builds on the award-winning Net-Works project co-created by ZSL and Interface which validated the inclusive value chain model in the Philippines and successfully tested replication in Cameroon and Indonesia. Take a look at one of our solutions for tackling marine plastic pollution that causes ghost fishing and how we work with responsible global markets to benefit people, planet and prosperity…

Video courtesy of Net-Works/Interface, 2013

Recognition & Research

We are widely recognised for our impactful and science-based approach

Here is a selection of awards and articles. For more details of historical awards and articles please see our old Net-Works site here

Coast 4C is proud to have been selected as WINNER of the Blue Economy Initiative Award at the Island Innovation Awards 2022

WINNER of the World Economic Forum UpLink and Friends of Ocean Action ‘Blue Food Challenge’, 2021

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Selected as one of 108 ‘Biodiversity Positive Practices and Actions Around the World’ for showcasing at UN Convention on Biological Diversity COP15, 2021

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Coast 4C featured in Credit Suisse report on “Engaging for the Blue Economy”

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St Andrews Prize for the Environment – finalist in 2015 and 2018 – Net-Works

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Guardian Sustainable Business Award 2015 – Collaboration category (ZSL & Interface for Net-Works).

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Unlikely partnership yields social and environmental impact – interview with Devin Thorpe

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A Sustainable Safety Net (Net-Works)

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Responsible Business Awards 2014 – Best Business/NGO partnership (ZSL & Interface for Net-Works)

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Our Reach and Impact

267

million metres

 of discarded fishing net diverted from the ocean and regenerated into high value carpet tiles, reducing ghost fishing

5,766

hectares

of the ocean protected in eight community-based marine protected areas that are 45 times the national average size

2,015

households

with gender equitable financial inclusion through 86 community banks in 32 villages

94

seaweed farming families

 trained in ecological seaweed farming techniques and supplying Coast 4C

2,188

hectares

 of no-take ‘replenishment’ zones in seven iMPAs, more than 20 times the national average size.

282

hectares

 of suitable habitat for ecological seaweed farming zoned within seven iMPAs: enough for 1,368 family farms

There is so much more to achieve. Find out how and join us today.