Beyond mitigative responses to climate change’s impact on oceans, regenerative blue economy strategies emphasise inclusive and sustainable growth
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This article is part of the essay series “Sagarmanthan Edit 2024”
The concept of the blue economy, as the World Bank defines it, refers to the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and jobs while preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem. The United Nations defines the blue economy as “a range of economic sectors and related policies that determine whether the use of ocean resources is sustainable.”
While the blue economy broadly denotes the oceans’ economic contributions, a coherent and comprehensive single definition remains elusive. To address this, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) proposed a framework with three dimensions: 1. The brown blue economy; 2. The sustainable blue economy; 3. The regenerative blue economy.
While the blue economy broadly denotes the oceans’ economic contributions, a coherent and comprehensive single definition remains elusive.
1. The brown blue economy
This includes traditional maritime activities based on an anthropocentric model, prioritising sectoral financial performance over sustainability. As the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) 2024 State of the Ocean Report underscores, this approach has led to the ecological decline. This is reflected in a 0.83 percent to 2.42 percent drop in ocean oxygen levels over the past 60 years and the inadequate protection of over 90 percent of marine habitats.
2. The sustainable blue economy
Since the Rio+20 Summit, the blue economy has been expanded to encompass all maritime activities aligned with the sustainable development goals. In 2015, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) introduced guidelines for a sustainable blue economy, encouraging organisations to adopt environmental, social, and governance criteria that prioritise conservation and ecosystem restoration. Achieving true sustainability requires moving beyond damage control towards active ecosystem regeneration. While integrating local knowledge and innovative tools can strengthen coastal economies, significant structural barriers still hinder broader global adoption. This urgency is especially acute for small island developing states (SIDS) and least developed countries (LDCs), which face significant structural challenges and limited resources. The Pacific Island nations’ urgency has inspired a regenerative vision of the blue economy that transcends economic goals to address climate change and biodiversity loss.
Achieving true sustainability requires moving beyond damage control towards active ecosystem regeneration.
3. Regenerative blue economy
This prioritises ecosystem restoration by adopting blue carbon practices, which follow a rigorous set of criteria to ensure carbon-absorbing marine ecosystems, like mangroves and seagrasses, are preserved and restored. Non-extractive activities like fishing, aquaculture, and tourism are included only if they follow regenerative principles, while extractive practices like offshore oil extraction are excluded. Rooted in participatory governance, this model prioritises the conservation of blue natural capital—sustainable, non-extractive marine resources that can regenerate over time. It fosters blue justice by including coastal and indigenous communities as active stewards, promoting social equity and economic resilience. This approach, exemplified through the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) across the Mediterranean, relies on local adaptation plans where community co-management enhances biodiversity while providing stable and sustainable income sources.
The regenerative blue economy strengthens financial foundations in coastal communities, fostering diverse and sustainable income opportunities while reducing the dependence on unstable sectors. Emerging investments, such as payments for ecosystem services (PES) and blue impact bonds, turn marine conservation efforts into income sources, attracting funding for projects with tangible ecological and community benefits. The European Union’s (EU) Restore Our Ocean and Waters mission highlights how public-private collaboration can drive investment and innovation in marine resource monitoring, reinforcing the foundations for sustainable governance.
This initiative bolsters food security and well-being by engaging indigenous and coastal communities in inclusive governance, uniting economic growth with environmental regeneration to deliver tangible benefits. Although many indicators of the regenerative economy are still being defined, the Ocean Impact Navigator—a framework introduced at the 2022 United Nations (UN) Ocean Conference to measure ocean impact and guide sustainable investments—marks a critical step towards assessing the positive influence of regenerative economies on marine ecosystems.
Practices like temporary fishing closures and mangrove reforestation create new economic opportunities for coastal communities, enhance biodiversity, and provide alternative income sources. The Climate Sheroes project in Pakistan exemplifies ecological regeneration by engaging over 500 women in mangrove planting and management, creating steady income sources through the selling of mangrove products while enhancing marine health and diversifying local livelihoods. Education and local capacity-building are vital to consolidate the results of a regenerative blue economy.
Practices like temporary fishing closures and mangrove reforestation create new economic opportunities for coastal communities, enhance biodiversity, and provide alternative income sources.
Through the Coastal Communities Initiative (CCI), approximately 19,000 individuals worldwide have been trained in marine resource management, conservation, and entrepreneurship, fostering local leadership for sustainable practices. Advanced tools, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and satellite technology, enable communities to monitor fish stocks and detect ecological shifts, ensuring timely, informed conservation strategies that reinforce ecosystem resilience.
Locally Managed Marine Areas (LMMAs) prevalent in the Pacific and Southeast Asia exemplify how indigenous knowledge and scientific methods converge to protect and regenerate ecosystems. In the Coral Triangle, spanning six Southeast Asian countries, community-led monitoring systems and university partnerships enable the sharing of fishing data and ecological trends, guiding adaptive fish stock and habitat conservation strategies. This collaborative model replenishes fish stocks and stabilises fishing practices, fostering a cycle that sustains marine ecosystems and strengthens coastal communities' food security and social capital.
The Great Blue Wall stands as one of the most ambitious applications of the regenerative blue economy, set to transform marine resource management along the Western Indian Ocean coast into a resilient ecological and socioeconomic infrastructure. Promoted by the IUCN and supported by a broad coalition of international and African partners, the project aims to create an ecological corridor formed by restored and interconnected coastal and marine ecosystems, covering over 2 million square kilometres. This system, consisting of mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs, is a natural barrier against the climate crisis, biodiversity loss, and anthropogenic pressures. By 2030, the project aims to protect 30 percent of the area’s waters through a nature and people-positive model that addresses both environmental and social needs. Restoring carbon-capturing marine ecosystems, it seeks to sequester over 100 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂). This initiative enhances food security and well-being, involves indigenous and coastal communities in inclusive governance, and promotes a strategic model that unites economic growth with environmental regeneration, delivering concrete benefits to coastal populations. By 2030, the project envisions generating 2 million jobs and creating income opportunities for over 70 million people. Achieving this ambitious vision demands considerable investment to initiate and sustain regenerative efforts. This strategy is essential to engage investors in the emerging blue economy, where profitability is paramount in ensuring long-term sustainability and impact.
By 2030, the project aims to protect 30 percent of the area’s waters through a nature and people-positive model that addresses both environmental and social needs.
As shown by the Great Blue Wall, the regenerative blue economy offers a transformative path, demonstrating how ecosystem restoration can serve as a driving force for social and economic renewal. Through the committed collaboration of institutions, investors, and communities, regeneration establishes solid economies that advance beyond the concept of mere mitigation toward meaningful, sustainable growth.
Stefania Petruzzelli works as a freelance professional with governments, institutes and various organisations specialising in communication and diplomacy.
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Stefania Petruzzelli, PhD, has extensively researched Italian and Comparative Literature with a focus on anthropological, historical, and social issues. She now explores epistemological changes in ...
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