Regenerative Blue Economy

Context:

A new IUCN report developed under the France-IUCN Partnership 2021-2024 and with the support of the French Development Agency (AFD) titled  Toward a Regenerative Blue Economy. 

More on News:

• The primer report is the result of a joint effort between IUCN Commissions, Secretariat and partners under the France-IUCN Partnership (2021-2024). 
• The  report was developed in the context of the Sustainable Blue Economy project, led by experts from the Ecosystem-based Aquaculture Specialist Group (E-bAG) of the IUCN Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM).   
• The new IUCN report proposes a clear definition and founding principles for a “Regenerative” Blue Economy. It defines different sustainability levels within the overall umbrella and sets ambitions for nature and society alike.

Blue Economy:

• Definition:  It is the sustainable use of ocean resources to benefit economies, livelihoods and ocean ecosystem health. 
  • The Blue Economy is a sector, expected to be worth some $1.5 trillion a year, as per the World Bank.
• Activities of Blue Economy:  It include maritime shipping, fishing and aquaculture, coastal tourism, renewable energy, water desalination, undersea cabling, seabed extractive industries and deep sea mining, marine genetic resources, and biotechnology.

Types of Blue Economy:

IUCN has defined three  types of Blue Economy from a conservation and sustainable development perspective in this primer.

• Brown Blue Economy or Ocean Economy: This is a type of Blue Economy rooted in the maritime sector and includes traditional activities of the maritime sector. It is anthropocentric and based on a conventional economic model. 
  • Blue Economy is here associated with traditional accounting consisting of micro- and macroeconomic profitability and social (including employment) indicators: 
• The Sustainable Blue Economy: At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) Rio+20 Summit, 2012 the “Blue Economy” was recognised as encompassing all economic activities in the marine sector, provided that these were consistent with sustainable development. 
  • Focus: The focus is to protect, repair, and restore marine and coastal ecosystems and ecosystem services are integrated along with the traditional focus on driving marine Economy.
  • Accounting: Success is measured in the form of environmental assessments,  and key performance indicators (KPIs), has been added to traditional conventional accounting for the Blue Economy.  
• The Regenerative Blue Economy: It is an inclusive framework which advocates for ‘blue justice’, and is based on the broad principles of the ecosystem approach 
  • Definition:  It is an economic model that combines rigorous and effective regeneration and protection of the ocean and marine and coastal ecosystems, with sustainable sea-linked and low-carbon economic activities, and fair prosperity for people and the planet, today and tomorrow.
  • Economic activities: Activities such as oil extraction or deep-seabed mining (DSM) are  are excluded from the regenerative economy scope. Other sectors such as fishing, aquaculture, and tourism will also need to adapt their practices.  
  • Success indicator: New indicators like the ‘Ocean Impact Navigator’, have been proposed as a way to evaluate the positive impact of the Regenerative Blue Economy on ocean and coastal socio-ecological systems.  

Additional Reading: about IUCN