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Coastal and Small Island Ecosysystems

The core work of this Centre is to conduct research relevant to food production in coastal and small island agro-ecosystems.

Such systems are found at the interface between land and sea, including marine, estuary and coastal wetland areas, and large inland lakes. Highly productive agricultural areas are located in river deltas and coastal plains. Coastal areas frequently contain critical terrestrial and aquatic habitats and support rich biological diversity. Examples of such habitats are estuarine areas, coral reefs, coastal mangrove forests and other wetlands, tidal flats and sea grass beds, which also provide essential nursery and feeding areas for many coastal and oceanic aquatic species. Countries known collectively as Small Island Developing States (SIDS) have in common their smallness and insularity, which often also indicates their vulnerability. These small island and low-lying coastal countries are subject to structural vulnerability that affects their productivity, development and cooperation policies.

Organic agriculture is a strategy to improve the resilience of food production in highly pressured ecosystems. The major challenges of converting to organic production in these regions include vulnerability to contamination from shared watershed, sea-level rise and salinization of soils, and improving performance of lesser-known but traditionally produced crops.

The proposed Key Topics are: Capture Fisheries & Aquaculture.

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The ORCA Centres and Topics

ORCA Centres

The eleven ORCA Centres will cover 22 topics related to organic agriculture.