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Since 2011, unprecedented beaching events of Sargassum seaweed have caused major environmental, health and economic problems in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, northern Brazil and the western coast of Africa. Not only are Sargassum influxes threatening already fragile and often endangered coastal ecosystems, such as coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds, they also disrupt the livelihoods of communities, especially those associated with the tourism and fishing sectors. The aim of this study is to develop a plan to turn these “brown tides” into opportunities for sustainable, scalable and efficient harvesting and valorisation approaches that will deliver environmental and socioeconomic benefits to the Dutch Caribbean and other end-users in the region. In this report we have reviewed the state-of-the-art of research on recent Sargassum blooms and influxes in the Caribbean with respect to biology, ecology, origin, distribution, socio-ecological impact and management options, in addition to existing valorisation chains and uses of Sargassum biomass, and environmental and socio-economic impacts of Sargassum valorisation. We conclude that value chains based on valorisation of nearshore Sargassum biomass into biofuel and agricultural products (i.e. fertilizer, animal feed supplement) seem the most promising for the Dutch Caribbean islands, since they will contribute to sustainable energy and food security, while reducing environmental impact of the energy and agricultural sector. Some of the identified management and valorisation strategies could also be applied to other areas that are affected by massive Sargassum influxes, such as the Gulf of Mexico. During 2020 pelagic Sargassum samples have been collected in different locations in the Caribbean region (Bonaire, Mexico, St Maarten) and Florida. These samples have been analysed for major components (including sugars and ash) and for content in iodine and heavy metals. The values obtained in these analysis were compared t

Expectations are that 80 percent of the global population will reside in urban areas by the year 2050. As urbanisation levels increase so do ecological footprint sizes in these areas, as it is in the cities that income levels are higher, and where higher levels of disposable incomes exist. Whereas the circular economy is gaining ground as a concept for increasing sustainability by the efficient use of available materials and resources, urban areas are often recognised as attractive starting points for making the transition towards a circular economy. The paper “Circular food chains and cascading of biomass in metropolitan regions” contains the description of a vision on how biorefinery concepts in current and future metropoles may contribute to the increased efficiency in the use of resources for biomass production. As such this vision forms the interpretation of the principles of the circular economy within the context of biomass value chains and within the geographic boundaries of a metropolitan region. This is also referred to as the circular metropolitan system. With this paper researchers from Wageningen Food & Biobased Research intend to contribute to a scientific basis for increasing resource use efficiency in metropolitan regions through developing appropriate and sustainable biorefinery concepts.