The term, blue economy was first used by a Belgian entrepreneur, economist, author, and sustainability expert, Dr. Gunter Pauli, in 2010, in his emphasis on “a shift from harmful traditional practices to innovative, sustainable business models.” It however, gained traction in global policy arena in 2012 after it was discussed at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro (Rio+20). By definition, blue economy is the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of ocean ecosystem..” Also, according to Carsten Pedersen of Center for Alternative Research and Studies, Mauritius, “blue economy is about everything in the ocean or inland water bodies that is or can be turned into a commodity, whether it is in the water column, above the water surface, on or beneath the sea-bed, or on coastal land.”
Hence, oceans and marine resources are emerging goldmine. They have attractions for huge capital investments and harnessing of vast untapped endowments for global prosperity. Oceans cover more than two-thirds of the earth’s surface and a 2015 study by the World Wide Fund for Nature indicated that oceans have a cumulative asset base of no less than US$24 trillion. And as a lifeline to the global economy that has been slowing down, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) had in 2016 projected that the blue economy contribution could double from US$1.5 trillion in 2010 to US$3 trillion in 2030.
As such, hundreds of millions of jobs and unprecedented wealth are generated by nations with sizable coastal and island territories from businesses and investments in fishing, aquaculture, tourism, education, shipping, carbon sequestration, deep-sea mining, biotechnology, among others. The prosperity from blue economy has the potential of beating the wealth from countries with highest sovereign wealth funds. Interestingly, African Union has taken blue/ocean economy as one of its goals for accelerated development in the ‘Agenda 2063’, which is in tandem with the No. 14 of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Already, three countries in Africa- Mauritius, Seychelles and South Africa are steps ahead of others in terms of enabling laws and policy formulation in the blue economy. In 2023, Nigeria’s president created a ministry of blue economy to leverage the opportunities in the sector. Emmanuel Ogalla, Nigeria’s Chief of Naval Staff notes that the country’s maritime domain, including the inland waterways, is approximately 10,000km of creeks/rivers, which apart from connecting 28 out of 36 states, also give access to six neighbouring countries: Benin Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, Chad, Soa Tome and Principe, and Niger Republic. This fact corroborates the estimates by the Nigeria Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) that transportation along the waterways alone can raise about US$1.2 billion annually. And with Nigeria parading the largest mangrove habitat in Africa and the seventh among the top 20 in the world, mangrove forests place the country at amazing economic advantage for its value of improving water quality and filtering of pollutants.
Despite the abounding economic opportunities in the blue economy, scholars from the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, University of British Columbia, have expressed fears that “as energy prospectors, biotechnology companies, deep-sea mining companies, fisheries corporations, and investment companies race to capitalize on ocean-based resources, substantial risks can arise for both people and the environment.” In Ghana, it has been noted that “small-scale fishers have been excluded from fishing within 1000 meters of foreign oil rigs and experienced physical violence by members of the Fisheries Enforcement Units.” The residents of waterfront communities in Lagos Nigeria faced the risks of forced evictions without applying the global principles of reasonableness and proportionality. The small-scale fisheries (SSF) in Kenya and Tanzania are under intense threat of “ocean grabbing, pollution and a lack of inclusiveness in the decision making processes” as it concerns ocean governance. The fishers in Mauritius in 2019 argued that environmental destruction occasioned by tourism development leads to “the problem of too few fish” noting that “when corals die [as a result of climate change], fish don’t survive.”
Artisanal fishers in Gambia are also worried about how fish stocks are scared away as a result of the ‘noise and seismic waves’ while prospecting for mineral resources along the ocean floor. There is also a concern that industrial trawlers are putting the livelihoods and food security of coastal communities in jeopardy as they “comb the oceans to feed European and Asian markets.” In essence, the poor coastal communities who are largely artisanal fishers are at the receiving end of the unprecedented attention in the marine ecosystem.
More worrisome is that both “ocean warming and acidification represent major threats and uncertainties for organisms and ecosystems in the ocean.” In fact, coral reefs, “the most diverse marine ecosystem” are projected to disappear by 2050. Thus, the biggest threat to the continued existence of coral reefs is climate change. In a similar vein, a report by the UN indicates that “the rate of deforestation of the planet’s mangroves is three to five times greater than even the average global forest loss, resulting in economic losses of up to US$42 billion annually.” Even shrimp farming and sand mining in Latin America and Southeast Asia led to large-scale destructions of mangrove forests that aided coastal fish populations.
The crux of Gunter Pauli’s argument in advancing blue economy revolves around marine resources exploitation in a sustainable manner. In the June 2020 article titled, ‘Blue growth and blue justice: Ten risks and solutions for the ocean economy’, the authors identified ten injustices which rapid and unchecked development of ocean resources had precipitated and could escalate. For them, ‘blue justice’ entails mainstreaming “recognitional, procedural, and distributional concerns through rigorous conversations around the ocean economy with fairness, inclusivity and justice as the end point for the coastal communities.
Blue economy therefore must be climate change resilient. There must be clear-cut policies for ocean resources conservation and replenishment. The rights of small-scale fishers and livelihoods of Indigenous Peoples of coastal communities should be protected.