Efforts to strengthen the country’s blue economy were recently validated by stakeholders which have confirmed that there are immense opportunities available for exploitation in the area.

The blue economy considers livelihoods and enterprises generated by the ocean, and in the case of Jamaica, the Caribbean Sea. With the oceans, seas and coastal areas categorised among large contributors to food security and poverty eradication, and some 80 per cent of world trade now being achieved through the sea, the blue economy through its vast water resources has been dubbed by many, including the United Nations, as the “next great economic frontier”.

At a recent workshop held by the Sustainable Development and Regional Planning Division to review the Jamaica Blue Economy Framework, director general of the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) Dr Wayne Henry said that a scoping study commissioned by his entity and conducted by NLA International showed that the blue economy in 2020 contributed an estimated US$2.5 billion of gross value added for Jamaica.

“There were more than 500,000 jobs attributed to the sector and the blue economy contributed 37 per cent of the employed labour force,” he noted.

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Matthew Samuda, said that with the country’s oceans now significantly more valuable than land, there is a large untapped potential which must be explored. He said that Jamaica was also yet to fully benefit from its large Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

The EEZ, according to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the ocean extending up to 200 nautical miles (370 km) immediately offshore from a country’s land coast in which that country retains exclusive rights to the exploration and exploitation of natural resources.

“The country’s blue economy includes tourism, recreation and leisure; scenic ocean views; and also the pelagic environment that supports food security through the fisheries sector. Future benefits will include mining, marine bio engineering and energy generation,” Samuda said.

Jamaica in developing a framework for all sectors that touch on the use of the sea under the Blue Economy Framework Project has been utilising funding valued at some US$400,000 from the PROBLUE trust through the World Bank to support growth in the area. The project is currently managed by the PIOJ on behalf of government.

Senior environmental specialist at the World Bank Maja Murisic at the workshop commended Jamaica as a small island state, noting that her organisation was extremely happy with its effort in taking a leadership position while engaging all agencies having a blue economy mandate.

Also participating in the workshop held late last week, a number of agencies including Jamaica Promotions Corporation (Jampro), National Fisheries Authority, Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation, Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Development Bank of Jamaica, Maritime Authority of Jamaica, Caribbean Maritime University and the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF) along with some environmental NGOs, also validated the strength of the blue economy, committing to their various roles in its development.

In highlighting some issues, they, however, called for greater strengthening of the institutional capacity of agencies connected to the sector in order to have better coordination and more sustainable exploitation of the EEZ, advanced legislations, improved financing policies for enterprises and increased research on coastal protection and marine biology among other measures in need of redress.

Deputy director general for sustainable development and social planning at the PIOJ, Clarie Bernard, urged stakeholders to review the draft framework document underscoring the need for them to work together in enabling the growth and development of Jamaica’s blue economy along a resilient and sustainable path.

The Jampro, which has earlier indicated that it would be doubling down on newer industries, including the blue economy, for growth, has already identified the sector as being viable.

“We haven’t quite narrowed down on what we will be pushing in this area, but we definitely see it as an area from which we can extract growth,” President Shullette Cox had told the Jamaica Observer.