Launching a Blue Economy: crucial first steps in designing a contextually sensitive and coherent approach

ABSTRACT

The Blue Economy is an emerging framework through which sustainable development is being pursued within the oceans. To date there is limited guidance into how a Blue Economy should be enacted. We propose four initial steps in the development of Blue Economy policies and plans. Firstly, we argue for early deliberation over what is meant by the Blue Economy within the relevant context. Secondly, consideration of the sectors that make up a Blue Economy should be articulated. Thirdly, we argue that Blue Economy plans should aim to be coherent within the existing policy framework. Therefore, an assessment is required of the existing policy settings for the relevant marine and coastal sectors, and the degree to which they are already coherent, or ‘mutually consistent’ with each other. Finally, a contextually sensitive and coherent Blue Economy policy can be designed which plugs policy gaps and adds value to the existing situation. We test the application of these four steps in two different case study areas, a region of Australia and Timor Leste. Despite substantial differences in context, the process identified ways in which Blue Economy policies could add value to existing governance arrangements in both settings.

KEYWORDS:

• Blue Economy
• policy coherence
• SDGs

Acknowledgements

This research was funded in part by the University of Wollongong Global Challenges Program. Thanks also goes to the Partnership for the Environmental Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) and the Timorese Government for their support and guidance in the development of this research. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers of earlier drafts whose insights and suggestions were enormously useful.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://oceanconference.un.org/commitments/?id=17641

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded in part by the University of Wollongong Global Challenges Program; UOW Global Challenges: Laying the foundations for a Southern NSW Blue Economy.

Notes on contributors

Michelle Voyer

Michelle Voyer is a Senior Research Fellow with the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) at the University of Wollongong. Her research focuses on the human dimensions of marine conservation and resource management, and the nexus of social science and policy.

Genevieve Quirk

Ms Genevieve Quirk is a PhD candidate in Law at the ANCORS. Genevieve examines how the integration of regional oceans governance in Oceania contributes to the evolution of the law of the sea. Professionally, Genevieve has worked internationally in policy advising for oceans governance reform in the South Pacific, European Union (EU), Antarctica and Australia.

Anna K. Farmery

Dr Anna K. Farmery is a Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at ANCORS. Her research is centered around terrestrial and marine food systems and the links with human and environmental health. Anna’s background is in natural resource management and sustainable food production in Australia, East Africa and South East Asia.

Lana Kajlich

Ms Lana Kajlich is PhD candidate with the University of NSW and a research assistant with ANCORS. Lana’s work explores informed and innovative science communication via citizen science, education and the power of the arts. She is interested in exploring the links between the social and ecological with respect to the large scale restoration of crayweed across Sydney.

Robin Warner

Prof Robin Warner’s past and current research is to make a beneficial, practical and enduring contribution to the preservation of a balanced ocean in which multiple uses are accommodated in an environmentally sustainable manner. The central theme of her research can be characterised as an examination of how law of the sea principles can be reconciled with marine environmental law and the legal and institutional mechanisms necessary to achieve that objective.