Blue economy

Governing the blue economy in maritime Asia-Pacific

Dr Michael Fabiyini is leading a project entitled ‘Governing the Blue Economy in Maritime Asia-Pacific’ funded by Australian Research Council.  This project critically examines how politically and economically divergent visions of Blue Economy policies and practices are negotiated, prioritised and implemented in maritime Asia-Pacific – a region of major socio-political and economic significance to Australia. Global discourses of marine conservation, marketisation and exploitation have now converged in an increasingly powerful governance agenda – the ‘Blue Economy’ – that aims to reconcile economic growth and ocean conservation. 

Our overarching aim is to understand the drivers, character and effects of different visions of Blue Economy governance at regional, national and local scales in the region. We focus on China and the Philippines – two proponents with divergent visions of the Blue Economy who exploit and manage shared spaces of the South China Sea – to examine interacting national priorities and interventions, and local fisher responses to, blue governance.

 The study’s three objectives are to: 

1. Determine how different discourses and policies (‘visions’) of the Blue Economy concept are represented, contested and implemented at a national scale in China and the Philippines;
2. Examine how the policy interventions formed under the Blue Economy impact upon the livelihood strategies and trajectories of coastal residents in China and the Philippines; and
3. Determine the relationship between Blue Economy concepts and policies in the South China Sea and regional China-Philippine relations.

Chief investigators: Dr Michael Fabiyini and Associate Professor Kate Barclay (UTS), Associate Professor Wolfram Dressler (Melbourne)

Partner Investigator: Professor Michael Pido (Palawan State University)