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Oceans cover three-quarters of the globe, and a staggering 80% of all life on Earth is found hidden beneath their waves. They also represent an enormous economic opportunity, which is why the “blue economy” is driven by a combination of growing ocean-based industries and jobs as well as concerns about growing pressures on dwindling marine resources and response to climate change.
While traditional maritime industries such shipping, ports, offshore oil and gas, capture fisheries, maritime and coastal tourism continue to innovate, emerging ocean industries are gaining traction. These industries include offshore wind, tidal and wave energy, seabed mining, marine aquaculture and biotechnology.
However, the predicted growth of the blue economy must not come at the expense of marine ecosystems and biodiversity. As such, a dramatic shift is necessary in how the world develops the ocean’s potentials so as not to compromise the marine resource base on which they rely. A healthy ocean will have more than just economic benefits. It will improve health and well-being, and enhance the resilience of the planet to support a long-term future.
Created a Post in Blue Economy
Tackling human rights abuses is critical to sustainable life at sea and on land
Traditionally, Human Rights Day has focused on international human rights abuses that take place on land: modern slavery, cruel and inhuman treatment and unfavourable conditions of employment, to name a few.
Increasingly, however, human rights and environmental justice communities have shed light on the interlinkages between these abuses and those connected to the world’s largest frontier, one that covers 70% of our world’s surface – the ocean. Stories of slavery at sea today highlight appalling human conditions, with workers separated from their families and forced into abysmal conditions, often unable to or prevented from returning home. Today, 40 million people live in modern slavery conditions, and 39% of seafood comes from countries that are at high risk of slavery. It is estimated that of the 152 million children engaged in child labour, the vast majority are in the agricultural sector, including hazardous fishing and aquaculture labor.
A small island community in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean has established the fourth largest marine protected area in the world -- it is roughly twice the size of the Great Barrier Reef
World leaders are waking up to the ocean’s role in a healthy planet
Fourteen nations have made an unprecedented and welcome commitment to use marine ecosystems sustainably. It is equally important to establish a system to hold them to account.
A collaboration between researchers from Cornell and the University of Wisconsin-Madison has found that small, community-based reserves in Thailand’s Salween River Basin are serving as critical refuges for fish diversity in a region whose subsistence fisheries have suffered from decades of overharvesting.
The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2016 (SOFIA)
It's Time to Stop Funding Overfishing -- As governments look to spark a green recovery, in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, they should take care to not do more damage than good. Rather than subsidizing fishing activities that hurt the ocean, communities, and the economy, governments have an opportunity to reroute funding toward efforts that bring benefits to marine health and human well-being... The Economist estimates upwards of $4 billion in subsidies each year may support illegal fishing activity... Meanwhile, the World Bank estimates that effective management of global marine fisheries and the recovery of fish stocks would yield increased revenues of $83 billion a year.
The global conservation community has taken a big step toward embracing behavioral approaches to conservation challenges! Last week, IUCN members overwhelmingly adopted Rare's (rare.org/) co-sponsored motion before the #IUCNCongress to “address conservation as a behavioral challenge." The motion paves the way for practitioners to incorporate behavior-centered design (BCD) into their programs.
Members of the International Coral Reef Initiative have agreed on the steps we must take, including to develop and use better tools, or indicators, to measure progress. Now governments have to act.
Protect small-scale fisheries: an income perspective
Coastal agriculture research, I like this interdisciplinary views!