Governing Africa’s Blue Economy: The Protection and Utilisation of the Continent’s Blue Spaces

Abstract

In Agenda 2063 the African Union (AU) prioritised the utilisation of the resources in oceans as the new frontier of its blue economy. Africa's "inland waterways" were added to the scope of the blue economy in the 2050 AIM Strategy. Most of Africa's marine ecosystems and large water spaces are shared by different countries which requires the transcendence of national interests, the harmonisation of national and regional policies and multi stakeholder participation in strong institutions guided by a legal framework. The protection, securitisation and sustainable utilisation of blue spaces are key pillars for the governance of the blue economy. The first part focuses on the contribution of Africa's blue spaces to the development of the continent, the growing challenges to these spaces in the twenty-first century and UNCLOS' legal zoning of oceans to manage their protection and utilisation. The second part focuses on the governance of Africa's blue economy and the security challenges to Africa's oceans. The last part focuses on the Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem (BCLME) and finds the Benguela Current Commission (BCC) to be legitimate, accountable and its * Rentia Pretorius, Lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, holds an MA degree in Political Science and her research interests are Africa, environmental sustainability, global warming, diplomacy and the global economy.

Operationalizing the blue economy in the Gulf of Guinea, Africa

“…In Africa, the BE concept is being adopted internally and externally (Childs and Hicks, 2019). This is evident in the "Agenda 2063: the Africa We Want", the 2050 African Integrated Marine Strategy, Policy Framework, and Reform strategy for fisheries and aquaculture in Africa (Pretorius and Henwood, 2019). Indeed, the African Union (AU) stressed the need to transition into the BE and therefore develop an initiative for a sustainable BE urgently to improve the socioeconomic wellbeing of Africans by fostering increased wealth creation along African oceans and seas in an environmentally sustainable manner (African Union, 2012).…”