Strengthening the Blue Economy: the Economic Case, Science-Informed Policy, and Transparency

The project aims to shift the global paradigm from viewing ocean production and protection as mutually exclusive to a 'produce, protect, and prosper' model. It focuses on three primary technical outputs: a landmark report by the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy, six 'Blue Papers' on specific themes like ocean plastics and finance, and a beta version of 'Ocean Watch,' an online monitoring platform. The project targets the adoption of these recommendations by at least 8 countries and 5 businesses. It is implemented by the World Resources Institute with UNEP as the implementing agency, utilizing a total project cost of $11,028,000, including $1,980,000 from the GEF Trust Fund and $9,048,000 in co-financing.

• The project seeks to challenge the 'business-as-usual' assumption that economic development requires over-extracting and polluting the ocean, arguing instead that 'economic production and Ocean protection must be mutually supporting'.
• The project's primary objective is to ensure that 'Governments and businesses commit to and begin implementing policies, programs, and investments' that facilitate the transition to a sustainable ocean economy.
• A central output is the High Level Panel's 2020 report, 'Building a Sustainable Ocean Economy', which intends to provide a 'to do' list for governments, the private sector, and civil society to catalyze the shift to a sustainable ocean economy.
• The project will produce at least six 'Blue Papers' to synthesize state-of-the-art thinking on specific themes, including ocean finance, the economics of marine protected areas, climate and the ocean, ocean plastics, and new models for sustainable fisheries/aquaculture.
• The 'Ocean Watch' beta system is designed as an online platform to address the gap in 'better and more integrated monitoring of the status, health, and trends of the Ocean', allowing users to overlay datasets and develop tracking dashboards.
• The project targets a specific impact of having at least 8 countries and 5 businesses adopt and implement recommendations from the High Level Panel report.
• The project emphasizes gender equality, noting that women are often disadvantaged in marine management and are 'overwhelmingly (in some cases up to 90%) involved in secondary fields such as fish processing'.
• The total project cost is $11,028,000, with $1,980,000 provided by the GEF Trust Fund and $9,048,000 in confirmed co-financing from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Swedish International Development Agency, and the Good Energies Foundation.

APA

World Resources Institute (2019). Strengthening the Blue Economy: the Economic Case, Science-Informed Policy, and Transparency. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2021-04/Strengthening%20the%20Ocean%20Economy%20-%20Project%20Document.pdf?VersionId=CkIYXz35PSBtia2ghC9ub9AVgggEaxnk

Chicago

World Resources Institute. Strengthening the Blue Economy: the Economic Case, Science-Informed Policy, and Transparency. 2019. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2021-04/Strengthening%20the%20Ocean%20Economy%20-%20Project%20Document.pdf?VersionId=CkIYXz35PSBtia2ghC9ub9AVgggEaxnk.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=Strengthening the Blue Economy: the Economic Case, Science-Informed Policy, and Transparency |date=27 November 2019 |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2021-04/Strengthening%20the%20Ocean%20Economy%20-%20Project%20Document.pdf?VersionId=CkIYXz35PSBtia2ghC9ub9AVgggEaxnk |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitute2019strengthening, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{Strengthening the Blue Economy: the Economic Case, Science-Informed Policy, and Transparency}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2019}, month = nov, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2021-04/Strengthening%20the%20Ocean%20Economy%20-%20Project%20Document.pdf?VersionId=CkIYXz35PSBtia2ghC9ub9AVgggEaxnk}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }