Deep aspirations: towards a sustainable offshore Blue Economy

Abstract

The ocean economy is experiencing rapid growth that will provide benefits but will also pose environmental and social risks. With limited space and degraded resources in coastal areas, offshore waters will be a particular focus of Blue Economy expansion over the next decade. When emerging and established economic sectors expand in offshore waters (within national Exclusive Economic Zones), different potential Blue Economy opportunities and challenges will arise. Following a series of interdisciplinary workshops, we imagine two technically possible futures for the offshore Blue Economy and we identify the actions required to achieve the more sustainable outcome. Under a business as usual scenario the focus will remain on economic growth, the commodification of nature, the dominance of private over public and cultural interests, and prioritisation of the interests of current over future generations. A more sustainable scenario would meet multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals and ensure inclusive economic developments, environmental sustainability, and fair and equitable access to resources and technologies across users, nations, and generations. Challenges to this more sustainable future are a lack of infrastructure and technology to support emerging offshore sectors, limited understanding of environmental impacts, inequitable outcomes, and a lack of planning and governmental oversight. Addressing these challenges will require a shift in societal values, a more balanced allocation of funding to offshore activities, transparency in information sharing between industries and across nations, and adjustment of international legal and institutional mechanisms. The sustainable and equitable offshore Blue Economy we envisage is achievable and provides a unique opportunity to build global capacity and partnership.

How to Measure Environmental Performance in Ports

“…Factors in the specific context of a port have strong influences on the selection and adoption of sustainable practices by the port authority, conditioning its environmental priorities, specific regulations, financial resources, and immediate competition areas, with wide variations occurring between regions and specific ports [31]. Variation in the above aspects is important, as corporate sustainability practices have the potential to generate value for port users and, as such, give competitive advantages to port operators and port servicers [32][33][34].…”

Mapping and Evaluating Marine Protected Areas and Ecosystem Services: A Transdisciplinary Delphi Forecasting Process Framework

“…The slope depends on multiple community properties (Hillebrand and Blenckner, 2002), such as richness, single species abundance, community evenness, and degree of intra-specific aggregation (i.e., species spatial distribution), with decreases in one or more of these properties lowering the slope of SAR (Novaglio et al, 2016). Since fishing modifies the structure of fish communities through species extirpation, depletion, range contraction, and habitat degradation (He and Legendre, 2002;Hilborn et al, 2003), the slope is expected to decrease as fishing intensifies (Tittensor et al, 2007;Novaglio et al, 2021). For instance, the slope characterizing demersal fish communities of South East Australia was shown to decrease as bottom trawling exploitation increased (Novaglio et al, 2016), and the slope characterizing coral reef fish communities worldwide was lower outside MPAs than inside MPAs (Tittensor et al, 2007).…”

“…Ecological and socioeconomic evaluations of MPAs are of particular interest in light of increased economic activity and investment in the oceans and ongoing consideration of the policies and regulatory frameworks that should underpin Blue Economy developments (Novaglio et al, 2021). Effective MPAs are key to achieve Blue Economy goals because maintaining marine natural capital will contribute to providing key ES that can help to mitigate climate change impacts while also promoting economic and societal development (Dasgupta, 2021).…”

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“…Nonetheless, BE sectors do not only provide prominent business opportunities and positive economic spillovers for EU MSs but are also expected to determine several potential issues and concerns related to climate change, marine ecosystems conservation and coastal local community preservation. 3 In order to face the increasing challenges posed by BE sectors' intrinsic characteristics and their recent market trends, in 2012, the European Commission developed the 'Blue Growth Strategy", positioning "blue growth" at the heart of maritime policy and defining the criteria and limits for exploiting resources provided by the seabed, coasts and waters of the EU Member States (MS), while generating economic growth and job opportunities. The Blue Growth Strategy has triggered several initiatives and funding programs from the European Commission dedicated to oceans-and seas-related activities, aiming at facilitating cooperative strategies between marine and maritime enterprises and public authorities, aligning interests of different stakeholder categories, securing marine environment and ensuring sustainable growth patterns for BE sectors in the next future.…”