Focus on Arts and Ecology

March 24, 2022 

There are countless daily challenges in life that drain us of energy and make us react in ways that we dislike or regret. Being caught in traffic can make us go into a rage, receiving a snide comment or being unappreciated can make us ruminate and sulk endlessly, and receiving negative feedback can sometimes throw us into a downward spiral of catastrophizing.

At the deepest level, unknown to us, we're acting out of subconscious fears that are a part of our genetic baggage. And although these fears served us well in the open savannahs where the possibility of being attacked by a saber-toothed tiger was very real, they prevent us from showing up fully in the world today. This is because most of our fears are psychological, based around a sense of self that is largely a construct of our own minds. Yet, the mental maps we build to make sense of our world include other people. No wonder then that rejection, unacceptance and disapproval lie at the core of our fears—they literally shake our self-concept.

We react to these threats by creating walls around our ego that protect and defend ourselves. However, this only alienates us further and creates an unfortunate vicious cycle. What if, instead, we were able to reach out to others and increase our engagement with the world? We'd be able to overcome daily challenges by strengthening our mind-maps, not tearing them down.

There is no doubt that when we're in the throes of negativity, this is no easy feat. Negative emotions hijack our mental capacities and drain us of energy. Ironically enough, even the willpower we use to refrain from behaving in ways that may lead to guilt and remorse, can leave us exhausted.

The good news is that positive psychology has provided us with scientifically proven ways to intervene effectively and rise to the occasion with grace, increasing our connection with ourselves, others and the world, and fuelling our lives with the energy to live fully and happily. Here are 5 strategies to try right now.

Ground Yourself

When angry or upset, our hearts race, our blood pumps fast and our breath becomes quick and shallow. To calm this fight-or-flight response, we need to connect to our breath and stabilize it by breathing slowly and deeply. In his fascinating new book, The Self Comes To Mind neuroscientist Antonio Damasio talks of the inner world as the lens through which we see the outer world. When our own inner world is in turmoil, our perception changes and our fears can blow out of proportion.

Think of Your Ideal Self

In each of us, there lies a yearning to live up to our highest possible version. In The Happiness Hypothesis, psychologist Jonathan Haidt writes about a moral dimension that we as humans aspire towards. When we react in ways that are contrary to this desire, we create a gulf where guilt, stress and disappointment can breed, affecting the pursuit of what we truly want in life.

Appreciate the Goodness in Others

It is easier to forgive others and let go of grudges if we believe that they have inner strengths that are valuable and worthy of appreciation. Strengths spotting is a great positive psychology exercise that enables us to do so. So does the realization that human goodness is innate, and can be harnessed in the interactions we have with others. When we help others connect to their goodness by believing in it, we also strengthen our own virtues.

Embody Grace

The research on embodiment over the past few decades has placed the body as central to our everyday experiences. Our physical responses are in reaction to our reality – but they can also construct our reality. When we embody the grace with which we wish to rise to the experience, through our gestures, our posture, our tone and our expressions, we make it easier for ourselves to think, feel and behave in ways that are in line with our best possible selves.

Open Up to the World

Once we have calmed down the immediate urge to react, the best way to keep ourselves from mulling over the experience is by stepping out of our own little worlds. By giving to others with empathy and compassion and by belonging to something larger than the self, we satisfy a very real human need for connection.

Our fears have been an essential part of our evolutionary trajectory. They have ensured that we survive long enough to pass on our (fearful!) genes to future generations. However, somewhere along the journey, we have also acquired the need to connect with others, and to make a difference to the world. It is in answering this need that we can respond gracefully to daily challenges.

Homaira Kabir is a Women’s Leadership Coach, a Cognitive Behavioral Therapist and a Positive Psychology Practitioner, whose work expands the breadth of the human experience. She empowers women to become leaders of their own selves in order to become leaders in relationships, at work and in life. You can read more about her work at homairakabir.com or connect with her on Facebook and Twitter (@homairakabir).

(Sources: Happify)

Sharon Salzberg explains how to practice basic breath meditation.

BY SHARON SALZBERG| MARCH 25, 2022 

This classic meditation practice is designed to deepen concentration by teaching us to focus on the in-breath and out-breath.

Sit comfortably on a cushion or a chair. Keep your back erect, but without straining or overarching. (If you can’t sit, lie on your back, on a yoga mat or folded blanket, with your arms at your sides.)

Close your eyes, if you’re comfortable with that. If not, gaze gently a few feet in front of you. Aim for a state of alert relaxation.

Deliberately take three or four deep breaths, feeling the air as it enters your nostrils, fills your chest and abdomen, and flows out again. Then let your breathing settle into its natural rhythm, without forcing or controlling it. Just feel the breath as it happens, without trying to change it or improve it. You’re breathing anyway. All you have to do is feel it.

Notice where you feel your breath most vividly. Perhaps it’s predominant at the nostrils, perhaps at the chest or abdomen. Then rest your attention lightly—as lightly as a butterfly rests on a flower—on just that area.

Become aware of sensations there. If you’re focusing on the breath at the nostrils, for example, you may experience tingling, vibration, or warmth, itchiness. You may observe that the breath is cooler when it comes in through the nostrils and warmer when it goes out. If you’re focusing on the breath at the abdomen, you may feel movement, pressure, stretching, release. You don’t need to name these sensations—simply feel them.

Let your attention rest on the feeling of the natural breath, one breath at a time. (Notice how often the word “rest” comes up in this instruction? This is a very restful practice.) You don’t need to change it, force it, or “do it right”: just feel it. You don’t need to make the breath deeper or longer or different from the way it is. Simply be aware of it, one breath at a time.

You may find that the rhythm of your breathing changes. Just allow it to be however it is. Sometimes people get a little self-conscious, almost panicky, about watching themselves breathe—they start hyperventilating a little, or holding their breath without fully realizing what they’re doing. If that happens, just breathe more gently. To help support your awareness of the breath, you might want to experiment with silently saying to yourself “in” with each inhalation and “out” with each exhalation, or perhaps “rising” and “falling.” But make this mental note very quietly within, so that you don’t disrupt your concentration on the sensations of the breath.

Many distractions will arise—thoughts, images, emotions, aches, pains, plans. Just be with your breath and let them go. You don’t need to chase after them, you don’t need to hang onto them, you don’t need to analyze them. You’re just breathing. Connecting to your breath when thoughts or images arise is like spotting a friend in a crowd: You don’t have to shove everyone else aside or order them to go away; you just direct your attention, your enthusiasm, your interest toward your friend. “Oh,” you think, “there’s my friend in that crowd. Oh, there’s my breath, among those thoughts and feelings and sensations.” If distractions arise that are strong enough to take your attention away from the feeling of the breath—physical sensations, emotions, memories, plans, an incredible fantasy, a pressing list of chores, whatever it might be—or if you find that you’ve dozed off, don’t be concerned. See if you can let go of any distractions and return your attention to the feeling of the breath.

Once you’ve noticed whatever has captured your attention, you don’t have to do anything about it. Just be aware of it without adding anything to it—without tacking on judgment (“I fell asleep! What an idiot!”); without interpretation (“I’m terrible at meditation!”); without comparisons (“Probably everyone can stay with the breath longer than I can!” or “I should be thinking better thoughts!”); without projections into the future (“What if this thought irritates me so much I can’t get back to concentrating on my breath? I’m going to be annoyed for the rest of my life! I’m never going to learn how to meditate!”).

You don’t have to get mad at yourself for having a thought. You don’t have to evaluate its content, just acknowledge it. You’re not elaborating on the thought or feeling. You’re not judging it. You’re neither struggling against it nor falling into its embrace and getting swept away by it. When you notice your mind is not on your breath, notice what is on your mind. And then, no matter what it is, let go of it. Come back to focusing on your nostrils or your abdomen or wherever you feel your breath.

The moment you realize you’ve been distracted is the magic moment. It’s a chance to be really different, to try a new response. Rather than tell yourself you’re weak or undisciplined, or give up in frustration, simply let go and begin again. In fact, instead of chastising yourself, you might thank yourself for recognizing that you’ve been distracted, and for returning to your breath. This act of beginning again is the essential art of the meditation practice.

Every time you find yourself speculating about the future, replaying the past, or getting wrapped up in self-criticism, shepherd your attention back to the actual sensations of the breath. If it helps restore concentration, mentally say “in” and “out” with each breath, as suggested earlier.) Our practice is to let go gently and return to focusing on the breath. Note the word “gently.” We gently acknowledge and release distractions, and gently forgive ourselves for having wandered. With great kindness to ourselves, we once more return our attention to the breath.

If you have to let go of distractions and begin again thousands of times, fine. That’s not a roadblock to the practice—that is the practice. That’s life: starting over, one breath at a time.

If you feel sleepy, sit up straighter, open your eyes if they’re closed, take a few deep breaths, and then return to breathing naturally. You don’t need to control the breath or make it different from the way it is. Simply be with it. Feel the beginning of the in-breath and the end of it; the beginning of the out-breath and the end of it. Feel the little pause at the beginning and end of each breath.

Continue following your breath—and starting over when you’re distracted—until you’ve come to the end of the time period you’ve set aside for meditation. When you’re ready, open your eyes or lift your gaze.

Try to bring some of the qualities of concentration you just experienced—presence, calm observation, willingness to start over, and gentleness—to the next activity that you perform at home, at work, among friends, or among strangers.

Excerpted from Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation—A 28-Day Program by Sharon Salzberg. © Sharon Salzberg, 2011. Used by permission of Workman Publishing Co., Inc., New York. All rights reserved.

 This week’s big environmental stories (18-24 March)

Central government inspectors have admonished Yulin, a part of Shaanxi province bordering the Maowusu Desert, for trying to turn arid land into agriculture fields, destroying local vegetation and overdrawing groundwater in the process.

The western Chinese city has struggled to balance provincial developmental needs with central government demands to maintain total farmed area, a report by Caixin on Wednesday 23 March shows. 

Since 2018, Yulin has converted 133,000 mu (8,778 hectares) of vegetated land into fields for agriculture, according to inspectors, who said the conversion has “exacerbated forest degradation and increased desertification risks.”

According to Caixin, Yulin’s conversion efforts were mainly driven by Shaanxi’s lack of land-use quotas for economic development. China has had a system in place since 1999 to preserve arable land for food security. In 2006, the central government set up a minimum level of 1.8 billion mu (120 million hectares) for the country to feed its people, hitherto known as the “1.8 billion mu red line.” Under the system, when a piece of farmland is converted for non-agricultural use, the authorities must make new fields available elsewhere to mitigate the loss. 

Many provincial and local governments have since reclaimed arable land from nature in order to free up precious land-use quotas. Like Yulin, many such conversion projects are in environmentally fragile areas unsuitable for agriculture. Caixin reported that Yulin had a serious groundwater deficiency problem. Inspectors were alarmed at the speed its water table has been dropping.

After the inspection result was made public, Yulin officials told Caixin that they plan to re-vegetate the converted land and put in place water conservation measures. But some of them also complained about being caught between a rock and a hard place: “The province still badly needs land quotas for development. Convert or not, we will face pressure either way.” 

(Sources: China Dialogue)

 This week’s big environmental stories (18-24 March)

Strengthening energy security underpins the 14^th Five Year Plan for a Modern Energy System, which was published on Wednesday. 

Significantly, it had been released into the government system on 29 January, before the start of the war in Ukraine, a conflict that has profound implications for global energy supply.

Though coal, gas and oil all find their place in the plan, it does demonstrate ambition to expand non-fossil energy. It is also a blueprint for systematic reforms and technological innovation in preparation for deep decarbonisation.

To ensure energy security, it sets a target of building up a production capacity for all forms of energy of 4.6 billion tonnes of standard coal equivalent by 2025. It gets rid of the total energy consumption target (5 billion tonnes) set in the 13^th Five Year Plan (FYP). Setting a target for capacity rather than actual production points to a greater emphasis on ensuring there are reserves for times of need. And the removal of the total energy consumption target is in line with recent policies to liberate renewables from rigid energy quotas and free up space for energy consumption needed for economic growth.

The plan is notably ambiguous on coal. There are no limits for its production, consumption or power generation capacity. This corresponds to the plan’s language of “strengthening coal’s role as energy security guarantee… and the regulating role of coal power in the power system”. 

In the next five years, coal power plants in China will be built or retrofitted as flexible, rather than baseload, power sources to help regulate the fluctuations of renewables. The plan says that by 2025 around 24% of all power generation capacity (3,000 GW) will be “flexible power sources”, and at least 200 GW of existing coal power will undergo flexibility retrofits. Rapid ramping up and down of coal power generators will dramatically increase coal consumption per unit of electricity generated. And notably, the new plan has eliminated the control on the efficiency of coal power generation in the 13th FYP.

For the first time, the plan sets a target for non-fossil energy in total power generation (39%). But that is said to be less ambitious than what the market has anticipated, and could be just a minimum for reaching the target of 20% non-fossil energy in the energy mix. Moreover, the plan doesn’t specify how much of that will come from wind and solar, although it does say their expansion shall be accelerated.

Rather than creating strong short-term decarbonisation targets, the plan is more concerned with building up a system ready for a low-carbon future, a system flexible and smart enough to accommodate a large amount and proportion of renewables. 

There are new targets created for increasing the percentage of the economy that is electrified, widely deploying power storage and adopting more robust demand-side response mechanisms involving big electricity users. 

(Sources: China Dialogue)

The co-author of a new report explains how most governments are overlooking a principal route to cutting emissions. 

By Patty Fong, March 22, 2022

The devastating war in Ukraine has understandably distracted media and political attention from climate change and related issues. But for those who did manage to absorb the findings of the latest publication from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the news was grim.  

The report concluded that more frequent extreme weather and climate events have exposed millions to acute food insecurity and reduced water security. Looking ahead, it warned that half to three-quarters of the global population could be exposed to “life-threatening climatic conditions” by 2100. 

The IPCC authors also highlighted the likelihood that climate change “will increasingly put pressure on food production and access, especially in vulnerable regions”. The top line message was that the world has “a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all”. 

The Ukraine conflict has dramatically underlined the imperative to shift to cleaner energy sources, not just to reduce emissions, but to dilute the influence of oil and gas on geopolitics. This has given a much-needed boost to the drive to wean the world off fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy.  

However, recent analysis by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, in partnership with Climate Focus and Solidaridad, reveals that most governments are largely overlooking another source of huge potential emissions savings: food systems transformation. Food production, processing, distribution, consumption and waste account for nearly a third of greenhouse gas emissions. And yet, most countries’ national climate plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), submitted as part of the UN climate talks, fail to address these issues systematically or comprehensively. As a result, they are set to miss the opportunity for significant emissions reductions, alongside a range of related benefits for health, the environment and the economy.  

Conservative estimates suggest that changing the way we produce and consume food could reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by at least 10.3 billion tonnes a year. This is slightly more than the combined emissions from global transport and residential energy use in 2019, and is equivalent to at least 20% of the cut needed by 2050 to prevent catastrophic climate change. To put it another way, without transformation of the industrialised food systems, it will be impossible to keep global warming below the critical threshold of 1.5C.

There are multiple ways in which food systems around the world could be reformed to make them more climate friendly, while also improving diets and nutrition, advancing animal welfare, and supporting nature and sustainable livelihoods. They include shifting away from industrial-scale production that uses lots of fertiliser and degrades the environment; directing public subsidies towards ecologically beneficial forms of farming, healthy food, and resilient livelihoods and communities; and promoting nutritious, sustainable diets adapted to local ecosystems and contexts. The mix of reforms will be different in each place but our analysis shows that across the board, countries are missing this chance.  

Of the 14 NDCs that we analysed in detail (Bangladesh, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Kenya, Senegal, Spain, South Africa, the UK, US and Vanuatu) none fully accounted for emissions from food imports, particularly those linked to deforestation and the destruction of nature and ecosystems, in spite of pledges made at the UN climate meeting in Glasgow last year to end and reverse deforestation by 2030. Similarly, none of the plans assessed include specific measures to promote healthy and sustainable diets.  

Germany was the only country we looked at that committed to move away from harmful subsidies that prop up intensive agricultural practices and contribute to higher emissions. While France was the only one whose NDC included comprehensive measures to reduce food loss and waste. China passed an anti-food-waste law last April, accompanied by a large-scale “clear your plate” campaign, but this is not reflected in its NDC, demonstrating a need shared with many countries for greater policy coordination and coherence. 

Of all the countries we looked at, Colombia, Senegal and Kenya had the most ambitious measures in place to promote agroecological and regenerative locally-led agriculture practices.  

Our analysis demonstrates where the opportunities lie at a country level, and also includes generally applicable lessons for how countries can incorporate inclusive food systems transformation into their emissions-reduction plans and reap the associated health, environmental and societal benefits. It gives governments and other actors a toolkit to drive such food systems reform.  

All parties to the UN climate talks have been asked to submit strengthened NDCs by the end of this year. With food systems reform offering such accessible wins, there is no good reason for countries not to include it in their NDCs. And with climate impacts accelerating and the window for meaningful action closing, there is no time to lose.

Patty Fong

China is set to continue to increase aquaculture output while reining in wild catch. For the seafood sector as a whole, sustainability remains the goal. 

By Zhang Chun, March 24, 2022

In January, the Ministry of Agriculture published its 14th Five Year Plan (FYP) for Fishery Development, a blueprint for the sector until the end of 2025. Annual seafood output is expected to increase from 2020’s 65.47 million tonnes to 69 million tonnes, while the limit for wild catch in Chinese coastal waters will remain at 10 million tonnes, and the number of large and medium-sized fishing vessels will be reduced.

Limiting wild catch and reducing vessel numbers has been at the heart of China’s fisheries policy since 2017, when provinces were told how many vessels to take off the water. By 2020, 40,000 working vessels had been taken off Chinese coastal waters, from about 270,000 in 2015, and the total catch reduced to just under 10 million tonnes, down from 13 million, according to the China Fishing Industry Yearbook. This was the first time wild catch had been below 10 million tonnes since 1995. During that same 2016–2020 period, China started piloting systems determining total allowable catches, and allocating these across vessels.

Given the continued limits on wild catches laid out in the 14th FYP for fisheries, the planned increase in seafood production will need to come primarily from aquaculture.

China produces its seafood from four sources: aquaculture, freshwater fishing, coastal fishing and distant-water fishing. During 2016–2020, distant-water fishing output fluctuated between 2 million and 2.3 million tonnes a year, and the goal for the 14th FYP is to keep that at around 2.3 million tonnes. Nor is there scope for much growth from freshwater fishing, due to a 10-year moratorium on fishing in the Yangtze.

Structural changes during the pandemic, which subdued imports, also forced aquaculture to provide growth. An analysis from the China Fisheries Association published in May 2021 points out “[such changes] will mean further reliance on aquaculture.”

How can aquaculture help China reach its seafood target?

Rapid growth in aquaculture over the past two decades has shifted the make-up of China’s seafood production: by the end of 2020, aquaculture output was four times that of wild catch fisheries. The 14th FYP for fisheries stresses the importance of seafood for food security, and the trends in growth and in catch limits mean that aquaculture will continue to be more important, both in terms of its quantity and contribution to the total.

While growth in aquaculture might be good for food security, it isn’t necessarily good news for the environment.

According to research from Beijing Normal University, aquaculture took over 30% of China’s coastline between the 1980s and 2014. That has fragmented wetland ecologies: the salt marshes of the Yellow River delta have shrunk by almost 80%, for example. Meanwhile, effluent outflows and other pollutants from aquaculture are one of the main sources of pollution in coastal waters. Government inspections carried out since 2017 have often resulted in orders to remove or improve aquaculture operations.

In 2021, after years of work, local governments completed planning for coastal aquaculture to 2030, identifying zones where it will be permitted, restricted or banned. This should mark an end to disorderly expansion.

Ensuring there is space for aquaculture growth, and for that growth to be environmentally friendly, are essential parts of the 14th FYP for fishing. A few approaches were highlighted as examples where growth will be possible, including aquaculture in waters further offshore, and combining aquaculture with rice-growing.

Meanwhile, China is also set to standardise the design of aquaculture ponds and encourage more environmentally friendly methods, such as water recycling and combining with rice-growing.

Another notable inclusion is the setting of limits on residues of veterinary drugs in seafood, the first time China has included such measures in a Five-Year Plan for fisheries. This will help bolster safety and quality monitoring.

A 2021 action plan had already set out five ways aquaculture will be cleaned up: promoting more environmentally friendly methods; treating effluent; reducing use of drugs, replacing “trash fish” – that is, fish too small for human consumption, often used as animal feed – with compound feed; and improving genetic stock. Trials of compound feed as an alternative to trash fish have achieved a substitution rate of 77%, which should encourage nearby aquaculture operations to try this approach.

China even has hopes of using the Belt and Road Initiative, overseas operations of fishing firms and the UN’s South-South cooperation project to export leading and environmentally friendly aquaculture approaches to other nations.

Shrinking China’s fishing capacity

The 14th FYP for fishing includes 12 targets, two of which are binding and 10 aspirational. The two bindings ones are restricting ocean fishing output and reducing vessel numbers.

Given that the total wild ocean catch in 2020 was 9.47 million tonnes, the 10 million tonnes target shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve. That figure is the highest sustainable catch based on China’s total ocean biomass being 16 million tonnes, an estimate that vice minister for agriculture Yu Kangzhen shared with the media in early 2017.

But the 14th FYP will also see China continue to help fishers tie up their vessels and change careers, and pay subsidies to reduce the catching of trash fish. That indicates the wild catch may further reduce.

Provinces including Fujian and Shandong have already, in line with Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs policy, started paying out fishery stewardship subsidies to vessels which stick to closed seasons and responsible fishing practices. The aim is to reduce intensity of fishing and better look after and use fishery resources. The subsidies are calculated based on positioning information, fishing logbooks, the use of designated landing ports, protection of ocean mammals, and percentage of trash fish in the catch. A study which examined the catches of over 800 fishing vessels nationwide estimated that 35% of the catch in China’s exclusive economic zone is trash fish. Reducing that amount will help reduce the overall catch. “Trash fish” is also a misleading phrase, as many smaller fish are juveniles essential for sustaining populations.

Reducing vessel numbers won’t necessarily reduce output, but it will cut fishing effort in terms of vessel capacity. Some provincial plans indicate that considerable work will be done to cut boat numbers. Zhejiang is aiming to cut the number of vessels working in Chinese waters by 3,000, or 300,000 kilowatts of power. That is equivalent to 20% of all reductions made by coastal provinces during 2016–2020.

Fisheries management has got significantly tighter since 2016. Closed seasons in all of China’s fisheries along its coasts have been extended by a month, to three to four months, and over 100,000 vessels without the necessary registrations have been confiscated. Meanwhile, alongside controls on total overall catch, provinces are starting to put total allowable catch (TAC) systems in place for certain species of fish. The 14th FYP period will see more TAC systems rolled out.

Between 2017 and 2020, all coastal provinces started TAC pilots. But most pilots focused on one species, and not usually a commercially fished one. The length of the pilots did not allow effective monitoring systems to be set up. And for various reasons, many pilots were not extended – much less widened to cover more species. But the 14th FYP for fishing said more TACs should be done, opening up the opportunity for more pilots. Wang Songlin, president and founder of the Qingdao Marine Conservation Society, and Sun Fang, manager of the Environmental Defense Fund’s Oceans Program, were involved in those pilots, and are happy to see them continue.

TAC systems manage fishing at the output end. The two major difficulties with this approach are estimating available resources, and ensuring TAC quantities are stuck to. A progress report on the pilots, produced by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Defense Fund, together with the Qingdao Marine Conservation Society, explained that setting TAC limits requires adequate survey and historical catch data, but currently, that is limited, and figures in the pilots were based on only recent historical catch. A lack of monitoring when catches are trans-shipped or unloaded are also problems for TAC management.

Port and fishing vessel management reforms, underway since 2015, are starting to shift the focus of that work towards the ports. Port-based management uses measures such as port entry and exit reports (hail in/hail out) and designated sites for landing catches, along with vessel access rules and oversight of fishing gear, and checks on catches. The next five years will see enforcement and monitoring personnel based at first-tier and designated catch landing ports. Also, fishing vessels will be required to hail in and out of port, with real-time position monitoring. The use of designated landing ports will also be explored.

Distant-water fishing: out of sight, not mind

While the coastal fishing sector is set to shrink, distant-water fishing is to see “high-quality development”. That includes sticking to the 2.3 million tonnes catch level of the 13th FYP period, with more monitoring and better compliance with international fishing treaties.

Distant-water fishing will not be the main driver of growth in China’s seafood output, but it is an important part of upgrading the industry. And, in a way, it is part of China’s diplomacy. China has inked fishing deals with 20 nations across Asia, Africa and Latin America, and has signed up to eight regional fishery management organisations. Alongside keeping fleet and catch size stable, the Ministry of Agriculture said in February that it will “promote a comprehensive system of distant-water fishing oversight including vessel positioning, electronic fishing logs, remote video monitoring, supervision of trans-shipments and product tracing.”

If China is to improve compliance with international treaties, it will have to implement fishery conservation measures that are in common international use. China’s first distant-water fishing vessel only set sail in 1985 – but it now has over 2,700. As the fleet has expanded, disputes have become more common. As part of efforts in 2016–2020 to formalise fishing activity, China required vessels to comply with international fishing treaties and established a system for assessing compliance. It also put China’s first voluntary closed season on the high seas into effect, for squid fishing, and for the first time sent observers to monitor trans-shipments on the high seas.

And in the coming five years, China is set to continue to bolster its capabilities to regulate and study fishing on the high seas and at the poles. This will include a traceability and certification system for squid, and exploring the possibility of a TAC system once catch monitoring is in place. Also, it will follow up on the China distant-water squid index by developing a China distant-water tuna index. The squid index is made up of separate measures for squid pricing across the major oceans, resource abundance and industry outlook, and is used to monitor development of squid fishing and distant-water fishing. The index requires more scientific and accurate assessments and predictions for fishing grounds and resources. Its guidance on price setting will also help fishing sustainability.

The 14th FYP will see China’s fishing industry continue on the same path as during the 13th FYP, with continued improvements. As Liu Xin, head of the fisheries department at the Ministry of Agriculture, has told the media, the transitions and upgrades underway will not happen overnight, but will take multiple five-year plans to complete.

Mixing other crops into palm oil plantations can improve soil health, fix carbon and open up new revenue streams for farmers. 

By Emma Bryce, March 22, 2022

On a 100-hectare plot of land nestled in Malaysia, farmers will soon begin an experiment that will turn the idea of a palm oil plantation on its head. Instead of establishing a monocrop, they will plant their oil palms alongside a lush understory of other crops and trees. They will shun chemical fertilisers in favour of organic compost, and start weeding manually to limit disturbance to the soil. “We really want to make this the way of doing agriculture in the future,” says Marco de Boer, CEO of reNature, a Dutch foundation that finances sustainable farming initiatives, and is working with the Malaysian NGO Wild Asia to deliver the project.  

The method he’s referring to is regenerative agriculture, though some prefer the terms “agroecology”, “climate-smart farming” or “conservation agriculture”. While it doesn’t have a strict definition, there are two linked goals at its core: to increase biodiversity and improve soil health on farmed lands. It achieves the first through techniques such as intercropping and agroforestry, which transform farmland into mixed-use systems combining commercial crops with native shrubs and trees; and the second via methods like no-till, cover-cropping and mulching, which involves returning organic waste back to the earth.

These techniques aren’t new: indigenous cultures have been practising them for centuries. But now, proponents are calling for their application across modern monocrops – from wheat to fruit and even livestock farms – where evidence is mounting that they can deliver ecosystem services, alongside economic and social benefits. 

By enriching soils, this way of farming can boost yields and simultaneously reduce the need for harmful chemical fertilisers. Diversifying plant cover can provide habitat for wildlife and make crops more resilient to pests and disease – thus requiring fewer pesticides and herbicides. Meanwhile, careful soil management could also help lock away more carbon in the ground. And a landmark study recently showed that vegetables, wheat, beef and pork produced using regenerative methods were more nutritious than food farmed conventionally. 

Mixed land-use could also give farmers more agency over the land: diversifying crops offers insurance against changing environmental conditions and disease, safeguards food security and can boost yields and earnings.

While regenerative agriculture is finding a foothold in the farming of many crops, palm oil is still a relatively new frontier. But precisely because of the widespread deforestation and exploitation the palm oil industry causes, proponents see it as a critical one. The question is: can regenerative methods work at scale, delivering both high yields and environmental benefits in today’s palm oil plantations?

Evidence from the field

It may still be relatively niche in palm oil, yet a handful of pioneering farmers have been testing regenerative methods for years. 

In Brazil in 2008, an alliance of stakeholders launched a research project to investigate whether it would be economically and environmentally feasible to grow oil palm in mixed-use agroforestry systems. Known as SAF Dendê, the project brings together Brazilian cosmetics company Natura, a farmers’ group called the Tomé-Açú Agricultural Cooperative, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, and the World Agroforestry Centre. It now covers 18 small-scale farms over 60 hectares of the Brazilian Amazon. Across these lands, farmers have reduced herbicide and fertiliser use, helped the soil to rebuild itself, and integrated oil palms with other cash crops like passion fruit and açaí as well as native hardwood trees.

Results from ongoing research – some of which will be published later this year – show these plots hold more soil carbon and support more wildlife than conventional farms. “From soil biodiversity, to macrofauna to birdlife, the biodiversity is definitely greater in these systems than you would find in monocrops,” says Andrew Miccolis, Brazil country coordinator and lead scientist for the World Agroforestry Centre, who has been involved with the project since its inception. 

Critically, these sustainable methods didn’t have an economic trade-off: over the first decade of the experiment, oil palms raised in these lusher agroforestry systems produced on average 40 kilograms more fruit per tree than their monocropped counterparts, Miccolis says. Farmers also benefit from the diversified yields, as the approach “enables adaptive management and a higher degree of flexibility, which is what farmers need for their livelihoods,” Miccolis says. 

These benefits are echoed at another long-standing palm oil project in West Africa. In 2007, soap company Dr. Bronner’s established an organic and Fair Trade palm oil project in Ghana, run by its sister company Serendipalm, to ensure the sustainability of its own supply. Farmers there have built up soil nutrients by cycling organic waste back as mulch onto the land, and Serendipalm has set a standard that on newly planted sites at least 10 individual trees from other species should be included in the mix. For farmers, the greener measures have paid off: “There is evidence that you can increase annual yields by some 20%,” compared to traditional farms, says Gero Leson, vice president of special operations at Dr. Bronner’s, where he has helped the company transition to organic and Fair Trade sources for its primary ingredients.  

Meanwhile, in Central Kalimantan, Indonesia, data gathered from small-scale farms that adopt greener farming methods, as laid out by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), suggests they enjoy higher yields. This is according to Heni Martanila, a community development manager with Indonesian non-profit Inobu, which helps farmers bring their production in line with sustainability certifications.

Yields are also mediated by factors such as the variety of oil palm that’s planted, the palm’s age, and general site maintenance, Leson says. Yet, although there’s limited research looking at the paired yield and environmental benefits of sustainable methods on palm oil farms, it does generally support the discoveries from these real-world sites: that regenerative farming methods can help boost palm oil production, while giving back to nature too.

Scaling up

But, there’s a caveat: regenerative agriculture techniques have been tested mainly on small-scale palm oil farms. These plots do generate about 40% of palm oil globally, making them a critical entry point for the approach, but the majority of palm oil comes from industrial monocrops. Scaling up regenerative agriculture into massive commercial plantations may be a bigger challenge. 

Miccolis’s research with the World Agroforestry Centre has shown that in mixed-use farms, yield increases per palm, but not necessarily per hectare. That’s because more land is given to other crops and trees (there are about 100 oil palms per hectare on agroforestry farms, versus around 142 on intensive monocultures, Miccolis says.) The worry is that large-scale palm oil agroforestry could drive further expansion of plantations, if we rely on this type of farming to generate the world’s palm oil. 

Miccolis explains that any potential extra land use could be offset by the incorporation of other crops onto palm oil farms if we fully embraced agroforestry across industries – which would in turn reduce the pressure of those monocultures on the land. “You might need more land to produce the same [amount of palm oil], but you’re producing several other things there as well. So the overall environmental footprint will be lower, in my view,” he says. That’s supported by modelling research showing that oil palm agroforestry could spare land by growing a greater diversity of crops in a smaller area. But more studies may be needed to understand how these trade-offs would play out at large scales. 

In any case, palm oil agroforestry wouldn’t necessarily need to expand into rainforest or peatland: research shows that farmers can successfully grow oil palms in already degraded lands such as former pasture. If cultivated using regenerative methods, palm oil farming could also then bring biodiversity and increased carbon capture to depleted soils, Miccolis adds. 

Another challenge is how to bring regenerative farming onto established plantations. Here in fact, Miccolis reckons there could be an opportunity. Oil palm productivity declines after about 25 years, when trees are uprooted and replaced with palm seedlings. This changeover offers a chance to wipe the slate clean and begin farming regeneratively across large swathes of land. Miccolis and colleagues at the World Agroforestry Centre are now looking at how to “incentivise companies when they are replanting, to be more sustainable and to introduce more biodiversity,” he says. 

Farmers may also find they have an economic incentive. By the end of their productive lifespans, conventionally grown oil palms can degrade soil, locking farmers into a cycle of dependence on expensive chemical inputs to enrich the soil for successive plantings. Switching to regenerative measures that build up soil health could break them out of this costly loop.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to the spread of regenerative agriculture is the human element: farmers must be willing to adopt it, both Leson and Miccolis say. Leson cautions that it is even difficult to convince small-scale farmers to embrace regenerative methods, when the potential benefits of diversified income and food security are clear. “The rewards are sweet,” he says, but “setting it up is clearly more challenging than having a simple monocrop.” Owners of industrial palm oil plantations will only be more reluctant, since they’re already reaping huge profits by farming a single crop at scale. “Mixing tree species is not a very attractive concept for people who plant palm to make money,” Leson says.

In this and many other ways, palm oil distills the challenges of modern industrial agriculture, wherein huge profits are built on environmental destruction. So, what is required to change it? Miccolis thinks nothing short of a seismic cultural transformation in the industry – “a real shift in their business model, and how they make money from that land.” 

Unpicking monoculture swathes and transforming them into mixed-use agroforestry would require a huge leap. But crucially for farmers it could also unlock new revenue streams. Diversified crops could provide new income and be a buffer in changing markets; meanwhile sustainably grown palm oil could be sold at a premium. The growing carbon market – which is already tapping into the potential of agroforestry – could provide new credit-selling opportunities for farmers whose methods can be proven to lock more carbon in the soil. 

These could help shift the farming paradigm towards what proponents of regenerative agriculture believe it should be: a system that makes profits by incorporating nature – fostering biodiversity, reducing pollution and capturing carbon – instead of by excluding it. 

The outlook

For palm oil, that future still seems far off. Regenerative agriculture to produce this commodity is currently confined to just a handful of small farms. Because of the unique challenges of integrating it into palm oil systems, it’s likely to be some time before we see trials on large industrial plantations, Leson believes. But buy-in from large companies willing to take a leap could send the right messages to the industry and pave the way forward. 

Inobu is now working towards incorporating regenerative agriculture principles across more of its projects, but until recently Martanila says that this principle hasn’t been commonplace in her work with thousands of small-scale farms in Indonesia.

Leson thinks one way to increase uptake on farms is to break it down into its component parts. “There are ‘shades’ of regenerative,” he says, explaining that not every farm has to transition to full agroforestry to make a difference. For instance, simply cycling agricultural biomass back into the ground to build up soil health and capture carbon, could be a powerful starting point on industrial monocrops, and may even be easier to accomplish on large farms with more labour and machinery, he says.  

Otherwise, certification could be a tool to encourage wider adoption of regenerative agriculture in the long-term – and there is now one in development. In 2017, Dr. Bronner’s, along with several other companies, farmers and researchers established Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC), a high bar for what this type of farming should look like. Still in its infancy, Leson hopes the ROC standard will gain a foothold in the palm oil industry. ROC is joined by other efforts such as Palm Done Right, a standard developed by the company Natural Habitats in 2013 to endorse palm oil grown using organic and Fair Trade practices. 

Meanwhile, pioneering farmers will continue testing regenerative agriculture out in the field. Back in Malaysia, if the experimental agroforestry plot delivers economic and environmental benefits, it could be expanded to hundreds of small-scale palm oil farms across the region, putting these measures into practice across several thousand hectares more. Progress may be slow and piecemeal, but Leson says, “I have this feeling that the concept of regenerative agriculture is going to grow.”