Resource sovereignty and accumulation in the blue economy: the case of seabed mining in Namibia

Abstract

Following its global emergence, the blue economy agenda is now touted as a mechanism through which the Republic of Namibia can achieve long-term sustainable and equitable growth. In (re)defining the ocean, seabed mining has been central to these discussions. Drawing on fieldwork and semi-structured interviews undertaken with key actors in Namibia and South Africa, between 2016 and 2017, as well as recent policy debates and discourse surrounding the potential extraction of marine phosphate in Namibia this article critically examines the framing of the marine environment as an extractive space. The blue economy presents opportunities for new forms of capitalist accumulation and this has resulted in struggles over who can accumulate in the marine sphere. This article therefore analyses the emerging and competing claims to sovereignty over this "new" resource frontier, including by state and non-state actors, and identifies which actors have been included or excluded from the blue economy agenda. In discussing sovereignty over this frontier and resources therein, it undertakes a rigorous analysis of the complications created by the ocean as a three-dimensional, voluminous, "borderless" space.Key Words: Namibia, seabed mining, sovereignty, frontier, blue economy, EEZ

What is the Blue Economy? A spatialised governmentality perspective

“…However, such frontier and development imaginaries are often misconceived (modelled on landed imaginaries) and at odds with material and spatial reality, leading to failed utopias. In Namibia, Carver (2019) highlights the struggles between traditional fishing and emergent mining interests as the State seeks to exert its sovereignty over its maritime domain, ostensibly for the benefit of all Namibians. Sovereign imaginaries are also less than they seem, due to the influence of non-State actors, such as Development Finance Institutions and private corporations, for example, able to deploy resources to gain influence and control (e.g.…”

“…Winder and Le Heron 2017). Access agreements may give rights to third country parties (Andriamahefazafy and Kull 2019) generating resource rents for the state (Carver 2019). Differing jurisdictions will use different controls and practices, which may be historically contingent.…”

“…Differing jurisdictions will use different controls and practices, which may be historically contingent. These regimes are often fragmented (Carver 2019), being designed ad hoc in response to individual needs. International frameworks and standards can superimpose global (Western) practices over State systems (e.g.…”

Securing the blue: political ecologies of the blue economy in Africa

“…Marine phosphate mining is analyzed in Namibia where questions of sovereignty and power circulate, and where the fixed sense of the 'blue' is blurred as it comes into dialogue with the dynamics of landed political ecologies (Carver 2019). By highlighting the important role that a unique, voluminous and deep ocean environment has in shaping the politics that emerges, the ocean is mobilized as a political actor normally missed by traditional analyses of seabed mining (ibid.).…”

China’s Blue Economy: A State Project of Modernisation

“…While the state has been acknowledged as a key stakeholder in other discussions of the emerging blue economy (e.g. Carver, 2019; Choi, 2017), it is rarely the central object of analysis.…”