Over the past two decades, the "blue economy" has increasingly captured the increased awareness of the role of the oceans in national economies. Moreover, it has also slowly but steadily emerged as a concept that captures the goals of sustaining economic development opportunities emerging from the oceans’ wealth while also aiming to maintain ocean ecosystem health.
Through international cooperation in education, research, and outreach, the Thematic Network on the Blue Economy and the Arctic (BlueArctic) contributes to capacity-building in the High North and promote sustainable approaches to Arctic blue economy growth.
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The Thematic Network on Blue Economy and the Arctic aims to uncover the conceptual and practical application of the "blue economy", in particular, its regional sidekick: the circumpolar "blue economy". The BlueArctic network will provide impetus to global blue economy discussions and related efforts to develop the blue economy as a novel concept for the sustainable governance and management of the world’s oceans. As such, the network aims to provide a better understanding of what the Arctic blue economy actually is and how the blue Arctic could serve as a potential blueprint for the sustainable development of our global oceans.
Research and education play critical roles in developing and implementing sustainable practices and technologies that enable the growth of the blue economy. We need research to understand the oceans’ ecosystems and the potential impacts of economic activities on the environment, as well as to develop new models for blue growth and inclusive blue governance. As such, interdisciplinary, cross-regional education is essential to train future generations of responsible Arctic professionals that do not only use the blue economy as a buzzword / catchphrase but rather question the ambiguity of its "win-win-win" rhetoric when implementing so-called blue ideas and policies.
