Stakeholder engagement. Summary of results from stakeholder engagement activities in fisheries and aquaculture systems

The main objective of the SMARTCHAIN´s stakeholder engagement activity was to conduct in-depth interviews and focus groups to gauge the view of stakeholders in Iceland and Norway on the challenges involved in transforming the fisheries and aquaculture food supply systems towards more sustainable and circular bioeconomic systems. The goal was to identify the stakeholders’ perception on the drivers and barriers regarding transformation of the food system as well as assessing synergies and trade-off. Previous work on mapping and indicator selection in the SMARTCHAIN project is summarised herein and aligned to a conceptual circular bioeconomy framework to visualise hotspots and underpin the interpretation of the findings from the multistakeholder interviews and focus groups. The findings on drivers and barriers for implementing sustainability and circularity in the blue bioeconomy were categorised according to key themes: regulatory, resource, market and social, focusing on the sustainability dimensions and probing further on circularity and governance more broadly. The need for improved documentation of rest raw material and waste and a holistic food system assessment was identified in both countries. A lack of infrastructure and a need for policy integration was discussed in Iceland while taxation was an issue of concern in Norway