Earth Today | Research, partnerships a must for blue economy to thrive
Published:Thursday | December 24, 2020 | 12:12 AM
The Prioritisation of research and development, together with tailored capacity building and awareness raising are said to be vital components of a needed overall framework to realise a resilient blue economy, especially in the face of a changing climate.
These are included in a raft of recommendations by respected Caribbean scientists who recently penned a chapter in the book titled The Caribbean Blue Economy, which was edited by Peter Clegg, Robin Mahon, Patrick McConney and Hazel A. Oxenford. It was published in October.
“A resilient blue economy across spatial and time scales should form part of an overarching, cohesive sustainable development framework in the region, even for physical, human, technical, financial and social systems indirectly associated with marine resources,” writes Jamaican researchers Dr Mona Webber and Dr Michael Taylor, who are both professors at The University of the West Indies, Dr Tannecia Stephenson and Felicia Whyte in their chapter of the book.
They also list a range of response measures to advance the blue economy, which is comprised, according to the 2017 World Bank Report on the subject, of “established traditional ocean industries such as fisheries, tourism, and maritime transport, but also new and emerging activities, such as offshore renewable energy, aquaculture, seabed extractive activities, and marine biotechnology and bioprospecting”.
“A number of services provided by ocean ecosystems, and for which markets do not exist, also contribute significantly to economic and other human activity such as carbon sequestration, coastal protection, waste disposal and the existence of biodiversity,” adds the World Bank Report titled ‘The Potential of the Blue Economy: Increasing Long-term Benefits of the Sustainable Use of marine Resources for Small Island Developing States and Coastal Least Developing Countries’.
The Jamaican researchers, meanwhile, recommend among the response measures for a resilient blue economy, the establishment of a sustainability process for the effective implementation of adaptation and mitigation measures, while leveraging co-benefits.
“Within the region, adaptation and mitigation measures are sometimes not implemented as part of a broader, holistic approach, to the detriment of sustainability. As such, the development and implementation of adaptation and mitigation efforts should be supported by rigorous assessment, ranking and prioritisation, with significant consideration given to the effectiveness of the measures in a progressively warming world,” Taylor and the others write.
“Monitoring the measures over the long term to ensure expected benefits are being derived, should be emphasised and any negative impacts are proactively addressed. Education, training and empowerment of local community groups in, or near to, the intervention areas will also be key,” they add.
AN INTEGRATED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
On the matter of prioritised research, they maintain that the blue economy should be bolstered by “an integrated research and development agenda that pulls from academia, government, private sector and multilateral resources (human and financial) to address current and future problems; fosters evidenced-based decision-making; promotes the development of new technologies, techniques, methods and tools; focuses on maximising benefits, reducing threats, identifying new opportunities and where possible, converting threats into opportunities; as well as replicates and scales up successful models”.
When it comes to capacity building, education and sensitisation, Webber, Taylor and the others argue in favour of “‘positive transformation in the knowledge, attitudes and practices of blue economy stakeholders”. To make that happen, they propose, among other things, the targeted education of stakeholders on how to protect and conserve the marine environment; development of a cadre of professionals who will lead implementation efforts; and the enhanced capacity of governments and other stakeholders to effectively sensitise and educate users of marine resources, as well as the general populace.
The World Bank, for its part, has noted a set of parametres for a blue economy – globally worth between US$1.5 trillion and US$3 trillion a year or about three to five percent of all economic activity in the world. They include the need for public and private actors to set clear, measurable, and internally consistent goals and targets for a Sustainable Blue Economy; to plan, manage, and effectively govern the use of marine space and resources, applying inclusive methods and the ecosystem approach; as well as to recognise that the maritime and land-based economies are interlinked and that many of the threats facing marine environments originate on land.