blue governance

The Centre for Blue Governance

Explore the work we're doing to secure the future of the planet's marine and freshwaters

Aquatic environments cover more than 70% of our planet’s surface and the value of the global oceans is estimated to be US$24 trillion.

The scale and importance of aquatic systems impacts biodiversity and ecosystem services and is critical to addressing crucial challenges in climate change, biodiversity loss, and safeguarding human health and well-being. However, despite the fundamental importance of these systems, there are large gaps in our conceptual knowledge and practice on how to best govern aquatic environments for the common good. New holistic solutions are urgently needed

Our five themes

The CBG tackles new and current research themes but also elaborates on new research areas. Our work encompasses numerous sub-topics and five central themes:

Blue policies, planning and security

Blue policies, planning and security

Sub-topics include

  • Coordination of aquatic economic sectors and inclusion of non-market services (ecological services)
  • Spatial planning
  • Maritime security and maritime domain awareness
  • SDG14 implementation
  • Integrated coastal zone management
Blue energy, technologies and transport solutions

Blue energy, technologies and transport solutions

Sub-topics include

  • Marine renewables energies
  • Logistics and safety
  • Shipping
  • Port management
  • Oil spill prevention
  • Biofouling and anti-fouling
  • Off-shore technologies
Biodiversity, blue carbon and climate change

Biodiversity, blue carbon and climate change

Sub-topics include

  • Marine and coastal ecosystem functioning
  • Ecosystem carbon sequestration and storage
  • Ecosystem resilience
  • Marine debris litter and plastics
  • Biodegradation and bioprospection
  • Marine and coastal ecosystem service valuation
Aquatic resources management

Aquatic resources management

Sub-topics include

  • Fishery management
  • Fishing by-catch of birds, turtles and mammals
  • Aquaculture development
  • Marine protected areas
  • Habitat restoration
Blue economy, human rights and labour

Blue economy, human rights and labour

Sub-topics include

  • Seafarers’ rights and well being
  • Ship breaking industry and sites
  • Fisheries and labour
  • Blue tourism and labour
  • Blue economy human rights and labour rights awareness
  • Blue economy modern slavery survivors access to remedy

Research projects

  • MaCoBioS

    The MaCoBioS project brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts, to ensure the efficient and integrated management and conservation strategies to help the most-important marine coastal ecosystems to face climate change

  • MOVE ON

    MOVE ON aims to address the principal issues raised by its predecessor, the MOVE project, in an integrated fashion, through the development of 4 Anchor Projects

  • INdIGO

    The INdIGO project (Innovative Fishing Gear for Ocean) aims to reduce the amount of plastic in the Channel area of the UK and France by 3% through the development of biodegradable fishing equipment

  • Native Oyster Restoration

    The Native Oyster (Ostrea edulis) Restoration Ecology project has created a model for restoration of this key habitat, by relaying millions of oysters into the Solent – the strait that separates the Isle of Wight from mainland England.

  • Centre for Enzyme Innovation collaborations

    The University's Centre for Enzyme Innovation (CEI) focuses on the discovery, characterisation and engineering of useful novel enzymes, and their deployment at pilot and industrial scales. Marine environments offer many opportunities to discover novel enzymes with biotechnological potential, and CBG members work with CEI members on a range of projects

  • Revolution Plastics

    Revolution Plastics builds on the momentum of our globally-acclaimed plastics research, and we're collaborating with scientists, business-leaders, campaigners and citizens on projects aimed at ensuring the elimination of damaging environmental and health impacts arising from plastics

  • RaNTrans

    Excessive nutrients in coastal waters cause eutrophication in the aquatic environment and green algal mat growth on intertidal mudflats, and this project aims to develop and test innovative and cost-effective methods to reduce both algal mat coverage and nutrient levels there

Centre management

Contact

For more details on the work of the Centre, please contact Louisa Wood by emailing louisa.wood@port.ac.uk or calling +44 (0)2392 844158

For information or enquiries on hosting possibilities for visiting fellows, professors and post-docs, please email cbg@port.ac.uk.

Blue Economy and the need for ‘Blue Governance’

At the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, the Blue Economy was viewed as the ocean economy, which aimed to “improve human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities”.

Achieving this requires integrating the needs and all stakeholder and interests in aquatic systems. However, there is a lack of consensus on quite what form these mitigation and adaptation measures might take and, crucially, how they might be implemented.

Blue Governance is an emerging concept and integrates Blue Economy and Blue Growth with the governance principle. Governance refers to structures and processes that are designed to ensure accountability, transparency, responsiveness, rule of law, stability, equity and inclusiveness, empowerment, and broad-based participation.

Blue Governance relates to the public and private institutional mechanisms (such as institutional coordination, private-public partnerships and institutional arrangements) required to implement Blue Economy and Blue Growth initiatives, strategies and policies.

What is the Centre for Blue Governance?

The Centre for Blue Governance at the University of Portsmouth aims to meet the holistic and multi-disciplinary research needed to inform blue governance mechanisms. The CBG takes a more expansive view of Blue Economy to encompass marine and freshwater systems and conceptualises them as development spaces.

The overall objective of the Centre is multidisciplinary collaboration to contribute to the design, setting-up and implementation of blue growth in countries, regions and political entities. It will develop and provide inter-disciplinary research expertise at both sectoral (various economic branches) and overall levels (coordination, planning) with a strong emphasis on the challenge synergising nature conservation and economic development.

The Centre for Blue Governance will also serve as a nexus to facilitate collaboration across stakeholders in blue governance. It provides multi-discipline expertise to the multi-sector and multi-user landscape of aquatic governance. The Centre's activities encompass research, development policies, social justice and education.

UNESCO Chair in Ocean Governance

The UNESCO Chair in Ocean Governance develops around the domain of Ocean and inland waters governance (Blue Governance) that is transdisciplinary by nature.
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Centre for Blue Governance