Towards a flourishing blue economy: Identifying obstacles and pathways for its sustainable development

Abstract

The current discourse addressing the need for sustainable development in the blue economy is necessary to promote effective mitigation and adaptation responses in times of rapid climate change. However, thus far, said discourse lacks foundational and specific principles to provide critical pillars able to shed light on socio-economic processes needed to achieve sustainable development across sectors and scales. This article discusses ten recently-described nature-based principles for achieving and sustaining a regenerative blue economy while advocating for an age of factuality. These scientifically-derived principles are built on well-accepted concepts of socio-ecological system dynamics and undergird a healthy blue economy.

Keywords

• Blue economy
• Regenerative economics
• Nature-based principles
• Age of factuality
• Adaptive cycle
• Socio-ecological resilience and adaptation