BLUE ECONOMY FOR BANGLADESH
Concept of blue economy:
The concept of blue economy is still at an evolving stage where there is yet to be any comprehensive definition which would be appropriate from the operational point of view. The Blue Economy conceptualizes oceans and seas as “Development Spaces” where spatial planning integrates conservation, sustainable use of living resources, oil and mineral wealth extracting, bio-prospecting, sustainable energy production and marine transport.
Gunter Pauli’s book, “The Blue Economy: 10 years, 100 innovations, 100 million jobs” (2010) brought the Blue Economy concept into prominence. The Blue Economy is envisaged as the integration of Ocean Economy development with the principles of social inclusion, environmental sustainability and innovative, dynamic business models.
At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD) held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, blue economy was viewed as ocean economy that aims at the “improvement of human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. The outcome document titled the “Future We Want” highlights the ocean’s contribution to growth, stating; “We stress the importance of the conservation and sustainable use of the oceans and seas and of their resources for sustainable development.” At its core the ocean economy refers to the decoupling of socio-economic development from environmental degradation. In this regard, efficiency and optimization of natural marine resources within ecological limits becomes paramount” (UNCTAD, 2014).
The European Commission (2012) has defined the concept of blue economy as “all economic activities related to the oceans, seas and coasts. This includes the closest direct and indirect supporting activities necessary for the functioning of these economic sectors, which can be located anywhere, including in landlocked countries”.
2. Fundamental Principles of Blue Economy:
§ Optimizing the benefits received from the development of their marine environments eg fishery agreements, bio prospecting, oil and mineral extraction.
§ Promoting national equity, including gender equality, and in particular the generation of inclusive growth and decent jobs for all.
§ Having their concerns and interests properly reflected in the development of seas beyond national jurisdiction, including the refinement of international governance mechanisms and their concerns as States proximate to seabed development.
3. Sectors and Activities of Blue Economy
The concept of blue economy is subject to multiple interpretations of the coverage of activities, geographical locations and sectors from the available literature, an indicative list of sectors and the activities fall in those sectors are illustrated below;
Sectors / ActivitiesFishing / Capture fishery, Aquaculture, seafood processing
Marine Biotechnology / Pharmaceuticals, chemicals, seaweed harvesting, seaweed products, marine derived bio-products.
Minerals / Oil and gas, deep-sea mining (exploration of rare earth metals, hydrocarbon)
Marine Renewable Energy / Offshore wind energy production, wave energy production, tidal energy production
Marine manufacturing / Boat manufacturing, sail making, net manufacturing, boat and ship manufacturing and repairing, marine instrumentation, aquaculture technology, water construction, marine industrial engineering.
Shipping, Port & Maritime logistics / Ship building and repairing, ship owners and operators, shipping agents and brokers, ship management, liner and port agents, port companies, ship suppliers, container shipping services, stevedores, roll-on roll-off operators, custom clearance, freight forwarders, safety and training.
Marine Tourism & Leisure / Sea angling from boats, sea angling from the shore, sailing at sea, boating at sea, water skiing, jet skiing, surfing, sail boarding, sea kayaking, scuba diving, swimming in the sea, bird watching in coastal areas, whale, dolphin watching, visiting coastal natural reserves, trips to the beach, seaside and islands,
Marine Construction / Marine construction and engineering.
Marine Commerce / Marine financial services, marine legal services, marine insurance, ship finance & related services, charterers, media & publishing.
Marine ICT / Marine engineering consultancy, meteorological consultancy, environmental consultancy, hydro-survey consultancy, project management consultancy, ICT solutions, geo-informatics services, yacht design, submarine telecom.
Education and research / Education and training, R&D.
(Sources: Compiled from Morrissey et al. (2010), EIU (2015a), Govt. of Ireland (2012) and Marine Institute)
4. Blue Economy in Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, discussions on blue economy started after the settlement of maritime boundary delimitation dispute with Myanmar and India. The declaration of verdict by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Germany in the delimitation case with Myanmar on 14 March in 2012. The award helped Bangladesh establishing sovereign rights over the living and nonliving resources of the Bay of Bengal in the Exclusive Economic Zone within 200 nm and in the continental shelf beyond 200nm. In the same way, the verdict with India declared on 7 July 2014 also allowed Bangladesh’s sovereign rights on all the living and mineral resources of the Continental Shelf extending upto 354 nautical miles. Bangladesh’s economy is sea borne to a good extent and with $ 130 billion GDP the country’s economy stands the 44th in the world.
Emphasizing the importance of ocean based economy Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina (on 1st September’2014 in International workshop on Blue Economy at Dhaka) underscored the marine- based economic activities and management of sea and its resources through “Blue Economy”, saying such activities could create new horizon for the development of a coastal country like Bangladesh. The Bay of Bengal is an inseparable part of Bangladesh and is our third neighbour. There is no doubt that sea-related subjects like expansion of international trade, use of marine mineral resources for long-term energy security, proper management of marine fish resources and protecting marine environment and bio-diversity would determine Bangladesh’s future development and economic growth. Today, 90% of the country’s trade is transported through the sea. The fish stocks and other inorganic resources in the Bay of Bengal can contribute greatly to our economy. Bangladesh earns substantially by exporting marine fishes. It is now more appropriate than ever to rely on ocean resources and management of such resources through the concept of Blue economy. HE Sheikh Hasina, PM also mentioned in the workshop that owing to the absence of maritime boundary demarcation, people of Bangladesh were not able to take any effective steps to exploit and explore the marine resources of the Bay of Bengal. Our fishermen in one hand faced difficulties in exploiting fishes in the sea, on the other hand, fishermen of other countries easily plundered our fish resources due to unsettled maritime boundary (MoFA, 2014).
The concept of blue economy in our country can be developed as emerging sectors. There exists tremendous opportunities for Bangladesh to strengthen Ocean Based Economy. Among the above mentioned 11 sectors Ministry of Fisheries & Livestock have wide scope for developing Fishing, Marine Bio-technology and Education & research Sectors.
4.1 Maritime Environment
Bangladesh has a land area of 147,570 square km and a population of over 160 million. Land-locked on three sides and in the south there is a coastline of the Bay of Bengal. Geographically, Bangladesh lies at the junction of the Indian and Malayan sub regions of the Indo-Malayan realm. Most part of the country is low-lying, about 10 meters above Mean Sea Level (MSL). The geography of Bangladesh may be divided into three feature specific segments; the continental segment formed by the northern parts, the littoral segment in the southern lower Bengal and the maritime segment formed by the Bay. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers four potential fishing grounds. The four major fishing grounds are:
§ South Patches and South of South Patches lies between 20° 50'N to 21° 40'N latitude and 91° 00'E to 91° 50'E Longitude, covering an area of about 6200 km².
§ The Middling fishing ground situated between 20° 50'N to 21° 20'N latitude and 90° 00'E to 91° 00'E longitude that covers an area of about 4600 km².
§ Finally, the Swatch of no ground lies between 21° 00'N to 21° 25'N latitude and 89° 00'E to 90° 00'E longitude, which covers an area of about 3800 km² (Shahidullah, 1983).
The Bangladesh coastline extends 710 kms along the northern edge of the Bay of Bengal, from the mouth of the Naaf River in the southeast, to the mouth of the Raimangal River in the southwest. The coastal zone of Bangladesh enjoys a tropical maritime climate. Its four distinct seasonal weather patterns, which are principally governed by the Southwest and Northeast Monsoons, are:
§ The dry winter season from December to February.
§ The transition period from March to May (pre-monsoon).
§ The rainy season from June to September.
§ The second transition period between October and November (post-monsoon).
Normally about 80-90% of the annual rainfall is confined to the monsoon months (June-September).
4.2 Maritime Area
At the end of the final settlement of maritime border disputes with neighboring states Myanmar and India in 2012 and 2014 respectively, Bangladesh has received entitlement to 118,813 sq. km in the BoB comprising her territorial sea and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) (MoFA, 2014). Taking into account major river inlets and estuaries, which are together very much a part of the marine ecosystem, the total marine waters of Bangladesh stands at 121,110 sq. km of which coastal waters and the shallow shelf sea constitute about 20% and 35% respectively, the rest (45%) lying in deeper waters (Chowdhury 2014a). Almost all of Bangladesh's marine fishing is carried out in shallow and shelf waters, beyond which no fishing is being currently done due to lack of vessel capacity and appropriate fishing technologies.
Figure 1.2. Maritime area of Bangladesh (from Chowdhury 2014a)
Within the BoB, Bangladesh has the widest shallow shelf region extending more than 100 nautical miles (185 km), 3-4 times wider than those of Myanmar, the eastern coast of India and the global average (65 km), providing a greater shallow bottom fishing area per unit length of coastline than its neighbors. Being located in the largest delta of the world means the coast of Bangladesh is in a continuous process of reshaping itself that will continue for millennia in the future, which translates on the ground into coastal erosion and accretion taking place all the time for centuries. This dynamic of the coast raised both havoc and opportunities.
4.3 Marine fisheries resources in Bangladesh
The fisheries resources play a significant role in fulfilling the demand of animal protein and socio-economic development of the country. For example, more than sixteen million people (about 11% of total population) of Bangladesh directly or indirectly depend on the fisheries sector for their livelihood. The BoB of Bangladesh is blessed with rich coastal and marine ecosystems, hosting a wide range of biodiversity, such as fishes, shrimps, molluscs, crabs, mammals, seaweeds, etc. (Table 1). A number of surveys examined the status of marine fisheries resources between 1970s and 1980s (Table 2), but no recent and comprehensive knowledge is available on the fisheries stocks, systematics, biological and ecological aspects of the coastal and marine fisheries of Bangladesh (Hossain D.M.H et al, 2015).
Table-1: Coastal and marine fisheries resources in Bangladesh
Category / Number of species (reviewed by)Hossain 2001 / Islam 2003 / Ahamed et al. 2012
Bony fish / 475 / 475 / 442
Cartilaginous (soft-boned) fish / 50 / - / -
Shrimp / 25 / 24 / 56a
Crab / 15 / 50 / 16
Lobster / 5 / - / 3
Mollusc (Oyster) / 301(6) / 301(3) / 336
Algae/Seaweed / 56b / 20-22c / 168
Coral / 13 / - / 66
Starfish/Echinoderms / 3 / - / 4
Whale/Dolphin / 11 / - / -
Squids (Cuttlefish) / - / 7(2) / -
aShrimp/Prawn; bAlgae; cSeaweed
Table-2: Standing stock (in tons) of demersal fish, pelagic fish and shrimp of the Bay of Bengal during the1970s and 1980s.
Demersal fish / Pelagic fish / Shrimp / Reference264,000-373,000 / - / 9,000 / West (1973)
160,000 / 90,000-160,000 / - / Saetre (1981)
200,000-250,000 / 160,000-200,000 / 4,000-6,000 / Penn (1983)
A total of 234 species of fish have been identified from the St Martin Island. Of which, 98 species are coral associated. The total number of recorded mollusk species from the St. Martin’s Island stands at 187 species. 7 species of crabs were recorded from the island. A total of 66 coral species were recorded, of which 19 are fossil coral. 36 living coral and the rest are under 6 families of sub class octocorallia. A total of 14 species of algae and 3 species of lobsters were recorded from the St. Martin’s Island.
Approximately 5-10% of the surface area of the sub-tidal zone of the St. Martin’s Island is covered with corals. Coral collection at the present rate is detrimental for their survival. Although the St. Martin’s Island is referred to as a “coral Island” no indication of coral reef formation was found in the Island. The earlier reports of “coral reefs” are in fact “boulder reefs”. (Tomascik, T.1997)
The harvest of marine capture fisheries was 379,497 tons during 2000-2001 that ramped up to 588,988 tons in 2012-2013 (DoF 2014) and sold as frozen (transported to large cities and overseas) or fresh in local markets. A considerable amount of fish are salted and dried, mainly for human consumption. Incidentally, the use of dried fish as a source of fishmeal is gradually increasing due to intensification of fish and poultry farming. Hilsa shad (Tenualosa ilisha)is the larget and single most valuable species with annual catch of 340,000 MT, and generates employment and income for 2.5 million people valued at $US 1.3 billion per year (BOBLME 2012, Hossain et al. 2014). At present 50-60% of global hilsa catch takes place in the coastal and marine waters of Bangladesh, 20-25% in Myanmar, 15-20% in India and the remaining 5-10% in other countries. A total of 46,568 MT tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) was caught from BoB during 2012-2013 (DoF 2014), most of which directly go to the processing plant and end up in the markets of USA, EU and Japan. Over the last 10-15 years, live giant mud crab (Scylla serrata) and estuarine eel (Muraenesox bagio) have been exported to East Asian countries. Less than 20% exported live crab come from crab fattening by the marginal farmers of Satkhira, Bagerhat and Cox’s Bazar coasts. Moreover, the harvest of young and undersized sharks and rays are dried, while the large sharks are dumped overboard after removing their fins and some other body parts. The majority of phaisa (Setipinna phasa) caught in the coast are used to make fermented fish product.