Caribbean countries urged to adopt "blue economy" to boost growth: report

A new World Bank report has urged the Caribbean countries to adopt the "blue economy" to boost growth and gain greater resilience to external shocks.

The report "Toward a Blue Economy: A Promise for Sustainable Growth in the Caribbean," released earlier this week, estimated that ocean-based industries will outperform the growth of the global economy and double their contribution to the GDP by 2030.

Caribbean waters in the region "generated revenues of 407 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, equal to 14 percent to 27 percent of the global ocean economy, though the sea's area accounts for just 1 percent of the global ocean," the report said.

"For the island states and territories, gross revenues generated in 2012 directly from the ocean economy totaled about 53 billion dollars, equivalent to more than 18 percent of their total GDP that year, mainly from ocean transport, tourism and oil and gas production," the report said.

However, "the promise of the growth is accompanied by mounting threats to the ocean environment," it said.

The report warned the Caribbean Sea's natural capital in recent years being changed by three human-driven trends, including overfishing, coastal development and pollution.

Even though fishing activity has increased in recent years, yields have declined as the catch of the region's fishing industry fell from 430,000 metric tons in 1998 to less than 300,000 in 2010.

According to the report, tourists come to the region largely for sea-related attractions, resulting in mass construction of waterside resorts, marinas, and other visitor facilities. About 75 percent of the region's reefs are considered to be at risk from human activity.

Meanwhile, agricultural run-off, untreated sewage and marine trash have caused major damage in the region. About 85 percent of wastewater is poured into the Caribbean sea untreated and about 0.16 million to 0.42 million metric tons of plastic entered the sea in 2010.

"Taken together, these trends impose a significant risk on the growth of the region's ocean economy," the report said.

It asked policy makers in the Caribbean region to make the current ocean economy a "blue economy" with "blue growth" to reduce the risk.

"Economic activities will be balanced to promote a sustainable, healthy ocean that can benefit not only the people directly using it, but indirectly the entire population of the world," it said.

Measures to be taken include maritime surveillance, environment monitoring and a better integrated governance framework, it added. Endi