Start of the new research project on investigating tipping-points in Peru

The project “Social-Ecological Tipping Points of the Northern Humboldt Current Upwelling System, Economic Repercussions and Governance Strategies“, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and coordinated by Kiel University, started on March 1, 2019 in Kiel with a meeting of all German partners, including the Universities of Hamburg and Bremen, the Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel. The international kick-off meeting together with the Peruvian partners Instituto del Mar del Peru (IMARPE), the Group of the Analysis for Development (GRADE) and 35 stakeholders, took place in Lima from March 19 to 21.

The main goal of the project is to assess the risk of decreases in marine ecosystem productivity as a tipping point for the interlinked ecological, economic and social systems of the Northern Humboldt Upwelling System (HUS). One focus of the project is the pelagic, off-shore system supplying the industrial Peruvian anchoveta fishery and its regional and global repercussions through export to international markets. The second focus are coastal and insular (Galapagos) systems, where artisanal fisheries, aquaculture and ecotourism are key maritime activities for provision of livelihoods. The project will improve the understanding of feedbacks between ecological, social and economic dynamics in the HUS with input from different user groups. The transdisciplinary project will integrate scientific approaches with local and traditional knowledge to improve the implementation of research results.