Can the blue economy alleviate poverty and rural exodus in East Africa?
The University of Montpellier continues to shine on the international stage. David Mouillot, professor at the UM and researcher in the MARBEC (Marine biodiversity exploitation and conservation) laboratory, has just been awarded an ERC Advanced grant. This funding of 2.5 million euros over 5 years will enable him to conduct original, trans-disciplinary research to assess the potential of coastal marine resources in rural areas of East Africa affected by land aridification over the last 30 years.
Alleviating poverty and rural exodus in East Africa through the blue economy
The project is based on the observation that over the past three decades, which have been particularly marked in East Africa by land desertification and natural disasters, coastal and rural villages have been better able to alleviate poverty and emigration by developing a sustainable blue economy capable of providing alternative resources and livelihoods.
The blue economy refers to economic activities linked to the oceans and their coastlines. David Mouillot's study will combine satellite imagery, artificial intelligence algorithms and statistical spatial matching methods with multidisciplinary field surveys. The project will focus on three types of blue economy (artisanal fishing, ecotourism and aquaculture) and three countries (Madagascar, Tanzania and Mozambique) where agricultural resources are threatened by climate change and where sustainable development issues are among the most critical worldwide.
The causal link between the development of a blue economy and the long-term dynamics of poverty and rural exodus remains unexplored territory in international research. The aim is to better understand the extent to which coastal communities in East Africa have been able to adapt to the consequences of climate change on their land by diversifying their activities towards the sea. The results could generate new local knowledge and solutions to guide policy and investment in Africa (EU interventions, UN organizations, donors, non-governmental organizations).
A decisive first year
David Mouillot will be recruiting a research engineer in artificial intelligence techniques applied to satellite imagery, a design engineer in geographic information systems, an engineer in remote sensing and field surveys, and a trainee from the Master's degree in Environmental and Biodiversity Management (Aquadura course). The team will soon be reinforced by a post-doctoral fellow in quantitative socio-economics and a systems IT specialist. Two main tasks will be carried out: to accurately model the level of poverty and population density in rural Africa from the 1990s to the present day, and to map blue-economy activities on the coasts of Madagascar, Tanzania and Mozambique. These tasks will be carried out mainly using satellite imagery, remote sensing and artificial intelligence, in collaboration with several partners from Montpellier laboratories (MARBEC, LIRMM, ESPACE-DEV) and international laboratories. This first year will also be dedicated to organizing seminars on the project's themes with specialists in the field.
ERC funding
The European Research Council (ERC) funds exploratory research projects at the frontiers of knowledge, in all fields of science and technology. It is a highly competitive call for proposals, with scientific excellence the only criterion.
David Mouillot's application was mainly motivated, despite the very low success rate, by the prospect of long-term research (5 years) with substantial and flexible funding. In fact, the 2.5 million euro budget will enable us to acquire the necessary equipment, in this case cutting-edge computer hardware, to build a team of 6-7 additional people dedicated to the project, and to carry out both socio-economic and ecological surveys in the field.
Portrait of David Mouillot
With a dual background in ecology and modeling, David Mouillot joined the University of Montpellier in 2001 to study the dynamics of marine systems in the context of global change, using a multidisciplinary approach. He was a junior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) from 2009 to 2014, then a senior member from 2019 to 2024. He was also awarded a Marie Curie European Fellowship to spend two years in Australia at James Cook University (2010-2011) to better quantify socio-ecological changes in coral reef systems. Since then, David Mouillot has been working on global coastal ecosystems to better understand the intersecting effects of climate change and socio-economic factors, including marine protected areas, on biodiversity and its contributions to human populations. His research has been rewarded with a bronze medal from the CNRS (2011). More recently, David Mouillot has developed new tools in environmental DNA to better study coastal biodiversity with the creation of a joint laboratory (ANR LabCom 2021-2025) between MARBEC and the company SpyGen. His new ERC Advanced funding is focused on the human-nature interface (2025-2029) to better predict the link between ecosystem health and poverty in rural coastal societies.