Private Oceans by Fiona McCormack

Author:Fiona McCormack [McCormack, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780745399102
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Pluto Press
Published: 2017-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Ecosystem services, the Blue Economy and ocean grabbing

The rise of the Blue Economy has its roots in an acceptance of the ecosystem services model in the marine environment. The advocates for this model stress the untapped wealth-generating potential of the earth’s ecosystems; that it is inequitable that the goods and services provided by nature to sustain the economy are essentially free. Since the 1990s environmental economists have pointed to the absence of a monetary value on the cycling of nutrients for the production of renewable resources (such as fish and forest products), the pollination of flowering plants, and the regulation of the environment (Pearce 1998). In response to this ‘concern’ a group of scientists, ecologists and economists spearheaded an effort to assess the value in US dollars of the earth’s ecosystem services and estimated the entire value of the biosphere to be US$33 trillion per year in 1995 (Costanza et al. 1997) revised to US$125–45 trillion in 2011 (Costanza et. al 2014). Since, there has been a proliferation of efforts to place a monetary value on ecosystems, in other words, to audit nature. This furore, which ostensibly provides a platform for unifying environmental and economic interests, is explicit in the Blue Economy.

The concept of the Blue Economy, while less popularised than its Green Economy sibling, emerged out of the Rio+20 conference in 2012. The United Nations (UN) Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) solidified the idea with the launching of its Blue Growth Initiative (BGI) in 2013, wherein blue growth is defined as ‘the sustainable growth and development emanating from economic activities in the oceans, wetlands and coastal zones, that minimize environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and unsustainable use of living aquatic resources, and maximize economic and social benefits’ (FAO 2015: 8). The initiative addresses four key components: capture fisheries, aquaculture, livelihood and food systems (that is, access to markets and value chains), and economic growth from ecosystem services.

Maria Bargh, a Māori political scientist, argues that the Blue Economy framework, (as promoted by ‘serial entrepreneur’ Gunter Pauli [Pauli 2010]) operates from a particular ‘cultural genealogy’ which ‘places a focus on individual entrepreneurs and innovations rather than collectives and communal-owned operations per se’ (2014: 467). An overt future orientation displaces historical practices and traditional knowledge. Meanwhile Barbesgaard (2015) points out that the ideology informing the proposal is clearly aligned with the extension of market mechanisms in environmental governance:

Each of the four [BGI] components stress the catalyzing role of market-based mechanisms in ensuring ecosystem stewardship [in addition to prioritising] the need for partnerships among industry, governments and communities and how especially the private sector and public–private partnerships play a fundamental role in this process. (2015: 6)

Clearly big picture stuff. Arguably the Blue Economy accentuates the centuries-long process of enclosures in the world’s fisheries by identifying a new wave of ‘growth opportunities’ in marine and coastal ecosystems.

Although not initially framed as a market-based mechanism to achieve environmental goals, privatisation policies in fisheries, such as ITQs, have been rebranded to meet these new priorities. In the

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