Environment

The Blue Economy

The “blue economy” concept (sometime also called “a green economy in a blue world”) covers both protection of the marine environment and sustainable management of marine resources, especially fisheries. Environmental protection can include processes to assess the state of the world’s oceans, and steps to create a representative network of marine protected areas. Fisheries management can mean Pacific countries reaping greater returns from their fisheries resources, as well as addressing illegal fishing and harmful fisheries subsidies.

At the September 2011 Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Auckland, leaders called for blue economy issues to figure prominently at Rio+20. They urged the international community to tackle threats to marine ecosystems and work towards integrated oceans management and a global network of marine protected areas. This follows leaders’ agreement in 2010 to the Framework for Pacific Oceanscape as an overarching framework for regional action on oceans management.

Steps at Rio+20 towards conservation and sustainable use of the world’s oceans could include:

• Developing better systems and science for monitoring and assessment of their health
• Agreeing how to manage marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction
• Progress on reducing marine and maritime pollution
• Regional efforts to combat illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing.
• Developing strong frameworks and rules for the use of fisheries. Sustainable fisheries management can also include a greater return to small island states from their fisheries resources.
• Working on climate change effects on the oceans and how to address them.
• Addressing fisheries subsidies that contribute to chronic overfishing and overcapacity of global fishing fleets.

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