The push for a Blue Economy is just not what it claims to be. It is rather a push for deriving of economic gains from our freshwater and marine ecosystems. It means a fundamental shift in the way streams, rivers, lakes and the oceans are perceived.
The Blue Economy is a top-down concept that claims to enhance the living standards and livelihoods of the people. Freshwater and ocean fish provide food and nutritional security to over 200 million Africans and provide income for over 10 million. Mangrove forests on coastlines offer a strong line of defence in times of hurricanes, cyclones and storms and also serve as spawning ground for a variety of fish species.
To understand the Blue Economy, one needs to look at the concept that inspired its creation. That concept is that of the Green Economy.
The Green Economy is another top- down concept that jars the organic relationship of humans with their physical environment as it essentially deconstructs that relationship and builds up on a philosophy that distances humans and other species from the environment and presents that environment as a thing to be
manipulated, transformed and exploited in a way that delivers gains along subsisting unequal power alignments.
Download and read Blue Economy Blues
