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Marginal coastal people's involvement in blue economy a must: Experts

It will go a long way to ensure sustainable development goals, they say

Published : Friday, 1 July, 2022 at 12:00 AM  Count : 3133

Marginal coastal people's involvement in blue economy a must: Experts

Marginal coastal people's involvement in blue economy a must: Experts

Global leaders, academics and development experts think the implementation of Sustainable Develop-ment Goals (SDGs) will not be possible if the government fails to serve the marginal coastal people's interest through the Blue Economy.
They think that these coastal communities are the most impacted by climate change, including sea level rise, storms, floods
precipitation and ,of course, acidification in the ocean that causes sea food depletion and pose huge threats to the life and livelihood of these poor communities.
According to the definition of the United Nations, Blue Economy is an economy that "comprises a range of economic sectors and related policies that together determine whether the use of ocean resources is sustainable."
Talking with the Daily Observer, Manuel Barange, Director of Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO's) Fisheries and Aquaculture division, explained that the quantity of ocean resources stocks including fishes, crabs, seaweeds and other sources of food opportunities are gradually reducing due to global warming and acidification in the ocean.
"Many people are losing jobs and are being forced to migrate to the slums of different urban cities and have gone through a poor quality life. Government, private sectors, donors and other stakeholders, all need to work together to create some opportunities to improve their livelihood following sustainable use of ocean resources for their economic growth." He made this comment on the sideline of a Press Briefing launching of 2020 UN Report 'The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture- Towards Blue Transformation' that took place at the Press Briefing Room on Wednesday. https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/ca9229en
Referring to the report, he noted that it gives special focus on sustainability, because this reflects a number of specific considerations related to Sustainable Development Goal 14.
"It means some efforts should be made to put fisheries and aquaculture in a positive impact on the poor marginal community. For example, we introduced different interventions including solutions across food value chains, sectoral and cross sectoral policy briefs, advice on planting and harvesting plans especially for the coastal women who were not able to catch fish in the river and ocean during Covid-pandemic," he added.
Kaleb Udui, a community leader and an ocean ecology preservation campaigner from Palau, (one of Pacific small island developing states), said that the respective governments from each country must take initiative to ensure economic and health support to this vulnerable coastal community.
"Government and private organizations should adopt some projects through Blue Economy with the excess of the local people whose livelihood have been affected due to oceanic pollution and overfishing. For example, "introducing tourism, giving special focus on local culture," he said while talking with this correspondent.
According to Cristina Pita, Principal Researcher, Inclusive Blue Economy Lead, at International Institute for Environment and Development, Blue Economy every government must have some specific commitments to address this vulnerable group who lives in coastal areas. "I think the most important way to ensure that coastal people's involvement is to protect coastal fishing by halting commercial overfishing and preventing marine pollution."
Referring to the SDGs goal 14 Sustainable Development Goal 'Life Below Water', Pita said that SDGs goals are interlinked with each other. "Sustainability means we have to ensure inclusiveness. If we ignore this marginal community, then implementing SDGs goal 14 and its target to conserve and sustainably use the ocean, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development will not be possible," she made this statement while talking with the Daily Observer.
Dr. K M Azam Chowdhury, Chairman, Department of Oceanography, Faculty of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dhaka University, emphasised on adopting a blue bond mechanism that is a new sustainability concept which gives loans to the local people to support investment in healthy oceans and blue economics. He remarked that the government should provide these facilities to the coastal poor people including honey collectors, forest dependent people, fisher men-women and many others.
"For example, in coastal area of Bangladesh, if the local men and women get these loans they can bring sustainable development both for themselves and also for ocean ecology and biodiversity. Women can start mangrove plantation in the sea shore or river bed, saline prone or alternative cropping cultivation, adopting sustainable business, for example, shell cultivation in the sea shore."
He also noted that they are planning to conduct a research work in offshore areas of Bangladesh by including 47 islands to explore potential benefits of each island and develop a project for each island focusing on the local people's financial benefit, he told The Daily Observer following WhatsApp.
Giving emphasis on science based interface, he noted that without these science based technologies availing data is not possible. "In Bangladesh, the northern part of Bay of Bengal area, there is no facility with regards to ocean observatory such as robotic fleet and wiggle to collect the data," he added.
Zobaidur Rahman, Third Pole, Bangladesh Editor, stressed upon resources and policy intervention, and said that the concept of Blue Economy is new in Bangladesh. As a new avenue to explore, Bangladesh will need to depend on the knowledge and experiences of the local communities, he suggested.
"For example, introduction of local based eco-tourism and also building up infrastructure industries in the Bay of Bengal where local communities could be trained and employed," he added.
He also suggested that as a Delta Nation Bangladesh needs to conduct research and learn from its neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Vietnam and other archipelagic states.
Abdullah Al Mamun, Deputy Director of the Department of Environment said that there are lots of opportunities for Bangladesh with regards to marine resources in different geographical locations.
"As a delta nation, our maritime territory has been expanded. So we have to harness more ocean resources to increase more benefits with regards to the Blue Economy," Mamun said. Also, he pointed out that the Bangladesh government decided to explore the opportunities to harvest resources from the vast water of the Bay of Bengal by recognizing the Blue Economy in the Delta Plan and various stakeholders are working to explore the prospect of it to ensure inclusiveness.
"And as part of this vision In Cox's Bazar government has planned to work with local communities to harvest sea shells and seaweeds in the Bay of Bengal," he said while talking with a correspondent on WhatsApp.
Multi-dimensional plans will be included under this venture of Blue Economy to engage the local communities with the vision of 2041 to strive to eradicate extreme poverty and gain the status of the Upper Middle Income Country by 2030, he also mentioned.
"This story was produced as part of the 2022 UN Ocean Conference Fellowship organised by Internews' Earth Journalism Network with support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (UK Branch).











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