Nathalie HILMI, Centre Scientifique de Monaco, section environmental economics, has organized a workshop about « Ocean sustainability and ocean economics in developing countries » on the 26-28 March 2019 in the International Hydrographic Organization (Monaco) during the Monaco Ocean Week.
The Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the earth’s surface and store as much as 97 percent of all water on the planet. Their rich, complex and biodiverse environments provide crucial ecosystem services that are key to all life on earth. On one hand, in developing countries, oceans and marine resources greatly contribute to poverty alleviation and food security to both coastal and inland communities. They are also very important providers of resources with high monetary values. On the other hand, despite the importance of oceans, human activities pose many threats to the sustainability of marine environments, which are especially vulnerable to pollution, overfishing, and degradation of habitats. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 is dedicated to life under water and aims to “conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development”. Worldwide, both at the local and the global level, researchers, policy-makers, and other stakeholders all are making efforts to reach this goal.
The workshop aimed at discussing the ocean sustainability and « blue economy » (economic activities in the oceans) with a focus on developing countries and the marine or maritime economic sectors. It was held during the Monaco Ocean Week 2019 and lasted 3 days. The final objective is to draft a paper on ocean economics as it intersects with economic development in lower-income countries. For that several themes have been developed during the workshop were: Coastal and maritime tourism (including cruises), the role of the ocean in the development, blue economy and ocean sustainability, ocean natural capital and ecosystem services, resources extraction (including oil and gas), shipping industry, fisheries and aquaculture, deep-seabed mining and minerals in the ocean, energy in/from the ocean.
Two outcomes are now in preparation: First, a policy-brief describing the conclusions and recommendations for policy makers that will be published in the MOW synthetic document and secondly, a research paper that will be submitted to a journal during the year following the workshop. We also intend to draft a grant proposal for further research on that topic.
The invited participants were:
Dr Mine Cinar, Loyola University, Chicago, USA
Dr Salpie Djoundourian, Lebanese American University, Lebanon
Dr Samir Maliki, Tlemcen University, Algeria
Dr Alain Safa, CEO Skillpartners, France
Dr Sandor Muslow, Office of Environmental Management and Mineral Resources, Brazil
Dr Mike Toman, Sustainable Development Team, Development Research Group, World Bank
Dr Shekoofeh Farahmand, Ispahan University, Iran
Dr Manal Shehabi, Oxford Energy, UK
Dr Majid Sameti, University of Ispahan, Iran