Blue Economy: Initiatives in the East Asian Seas

Maria Corazon Ebarvia

Project Manager, PEMSEA

www.pemsea.org 1
Ocean… the new frontier

• It holds the promise of immense resource wealth

• Great potential for boosting economic growth, trade,

employment and innovation.

• Indispensable for addressing many of the global challenges

– world food security
– climate change
– provision of energy, water, new medicines,
oil, gas, minerals and other natural resources

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Blue economy

• Changwon Declaration 2012

• sustainable use of ocean resources for

economic growth, livelihoods and jobs, while
preserving the health of oceans and ecosystems

• Realising the full potential of the ocean

demands responsible, sustainable and inclusive
approaches to its economic development.

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Blue economy in international agreements

• SDG 14: conservation and sustainable use of the oceans,

seas and marine resources for sustainable development

• Rio+20: ocean as natural capital; oceans as good

business; oceans as integral to Pacific SIDS; and oceans
as small-scale fisheries livelihoods

• APEC 2014: fostering economic growth through

conservation and sustainable development and
management (Xiamen Declaration 2014)

• UNCLOS; Aichi biodiversity targets; CBD; Ramsar

Convention; CITES; MARPOL; UNFCCC; etc.

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Ocean economy
• Ocean-industry dimension
• Natural assets, goods and ecosystem services that the
ocean provides
– fish, shipping lanes, oil and gas, carbon absorption, shoreline
protection, waste assimilation, recreation, etc.
• Impacts of the ocean economy and human activities
• These are inextricably inter-linked.

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 Scope of the ocean economy
• Fisheries & Aquaculture
• Oil and Gas; ultra-deep water oil and gas
• Mining (Minerals); deep seabed mining
• Energy (ocean energy; offshore wind)
• Water (desalination)
• Manufacturing:
• seafood processing,
• marine biotechnology & pharmaceuticals,
• salt,
• ship building and repair, marine transport
equipment
• Marine Construction and dredging
• Shipping and Ports
• Marine tourism and recreation
• Public/Government
• Marine communications (submarine cables)
• Marine education and research
• Marine services (mapping, monitoring, consulting,
martitime insurance, maritime safety and
surveillance)

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Size of the ocean economy in EAS region

Ocean Economy Value of ecosystem

(Gross value added, in US$ billion, in 2015) Country
services (US$)
Cambodia 2.39 Cambodia 83.4 M – 400 M*
China 1,041.92 Indonesia 412 B
Indonesia 182.54 Malaysia 17.7 B
Malaysia 63.00
Philippines 17 B
Philippines 11.81
(2013)
RO Korea 40.5 B - 42.6 B
RO Korea 43.53
Singapore 20.78 * Thailand 36 B
Thailand 118.19 Timor Leste 5.25 B
Timor Leste 1.97 TOTAL ~531.5 B
Viet Nam 38.23
TOTAL Blue carbon value (est):
~1,5 T
Mangroves: $111 B
Seagrass: $77-95 B
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Source of economic growth and jobs

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 Ocean as natural capital
Fisheries
Countries in EAS Region account for:
63% of global fisheries
• 80% of global aquaculture = $100B
• 40% of world’s capture fisheries = $35B

Offshore oil and gas

Source: World Bank 2016; FAO

Marine tourism

US$34B annually
Source: WTTC 2017
~ $200 billion (gross
value added of tourism) www.pemsea.org 9
Transforming to blue economy:
Emerging industries

Renewable energy
• Ocean energy (RO Korea, China, Japan)
• Offshore and coastal wind power (Philippines, Thailand)

Desalination (Singapore, China, Japan)

Marine biotechnology (Philippines, China)

Climate resilient infrastructure

Green ports

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Fisheries and Aquaculture:
Transforming to blue economy

Marine ranch and Conservation and

integrated multi- sustainable sourcing of
trophic aquaculture blue swimming crabs
(Philippines)
(YSLME, China, RO Korea)

Mud crab culture and

Seaweed
mangrove rehabilitation Crab farming at
(Timor Leste) condominium industrial scale
(Indonesia)
(Thailand)

Climate-smart Community-
aquaculture based fish
(Viet Nam) Catch documentation sanctuaries
and traceability system (Cambodia)
(Philippines, Indonesia)

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Transforming to blue economy:
Sustainable Tourism

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Ports and shipping:
Transforming to blue economy

Green ports

Solar-powered boats

Clean ships initiative

Shore reception facilities

Shore-based power supply using

renewable energy
PSHEMS
Joint oil spill response (GOT); ASEAN MoU
National oil spill prevention and response
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Blue economy initiatives and SDG 14

EAS Congress 2018

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State of Oceans and Coasts reports

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 Challenges and needs
Oceans still not Moving
Data constraints forward
a priority

Lack of national Ocean economy changing role of

ocean policy and accounts: not part of governance
institutional regular stats…
arrangements data disaggregation; emergence of
standardization the private sector
as an important
Need for common Lack of environmental actor for
understanding of monitoring system: ensuring
blue economy data on marine water sustainable and
quality, wastes, fish inclusive well-
Need to link to the stocks, area and condition being
SDGs and other of habitats, etc.
international Circular economy
agreements Lack of studies on and climate
valuation of ecosystem resiliency
services www.pemsea.org 16