Sustainable Mariculture Practices in Africa’s Coastal Desert Zones: A Pathway to Food Security and Economic Stability

With the world population projected to reach an astonishing 9.7 billion by 2050, an immense increase of pressure on finite food resources such as traditional land-based agriculture and wild capture of fish stocks is anticipated. Mariculture has globally become the solution that various individuals, communities, businesses, and countries have turned to due to it being able to supply the demand of food, alleviating the pressure on wild fisheries stock, preventing the continuation of habitat degradation and providing socioeconomic benefits thereby stimulating local economies. Although Africa’s coastal desert zones present formidable challenges for food production systems, it provides the potential for the development of sustainable mariculture through the strategic development and implementation of mariculture practices, production systems, and policies. The development of mariculture in Africa’s coastal deserts countries, despite extreme aridity, limited fresh water, and poor terrestrial agricultural potential including Namibia, South Africa, Eritrea, Djibouti, Egypt, and Morocco, is a reflection of the strategic adaptation to the evolving environmental reality. While rearing marine organisms such as fin fish, crustaceans, shellfish, and algae, the use of these coastal deserts offers a transformative approach to food security, simultaneously, aiding towards the conservation of natural marine environments and boosting local economies. Various methods of mariculture are observed among the countries, including open sea systems, sheltered bay systems using cages or tanks or land-based systems such as recirculating aquaculture systems, polyculture tank systems, ponds, and multitrophic mariculture approach. This ensures the optimization of the utilization of the resources while ensuring positive yields. However, the successful sustainable implementation of mariculture heavily relies on the adoption of appropriate systems, innovative tools and technologies, compliance to rigorous standards of operations, community empowerment, and the establishment of essential governance and policy frameworks. In this chapter, we analyze what steps these African countries have taken, and need to further implement to ensure that they sustainably contribute to food security and economic well-being. Mariculture provides a pathway to enhanced food security through the provision of marine protein sources and is a holistic development tool capable of fostering resilient food systems, generating diverse employment, and driving economic growth in some of the continent’s most challenging environments. This chapter provides a framework for scaling mariculture as a strategic tool for sustainable development across Africa’s coastal desert zones in accordance to the African Union Blue Economy strategy (2020) and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.