Sufficiency should underpin new oceans management model

The new oceans economy should be driven by a global redistribution of natural resources and a move away from the chimera of economic growth to a fresh new “sufficiency” narrative.

That is the view of environmental social scientist Prof Christina Hicks from Lancaster University in the UK, who delivered the keynote address at the Transformed and Transformative Ocean Governance Conference hosted by the Institute for Coastal and  Marine Research at Nelson Mandela University on Wednesday.

Hicks, who was raised in Ethiopia, said the global Blue Economy was simply ramping up pressure on the oceans with a raft of new demands on a limited resource base.

Though some of these demands were environmentally friendly or neutral, they had not been used to reduce existing environmentally destructive ocean based development.

“So transformation in ocean governance is happening, but society has not yet legitimised it.

“It can still be changed and we should talk about that.”

Hicks said humankind had through the centuries developed different relationships with the ocean related to trade and transport, culture, identity and worship, health and the extraction of materials and seafood.

These age-old engagements needed to be considered against the continuing challenge of poverty and malnutrition, huge depletion in natural resources and increases in pollution, and the dark cloud of climate change.

“We are using the ocean to install wind farms but we are not reducing our dependence on non-renewable energy.

“We have introduced aquaculture but we are not reducing our harvest of wild fish.

“We are ramping up marine tourism but we’re not using that new activity, even if it is eco-friendly, to replace another damaging activity.

“It’s simply being added on.

“The clamour for ocean space is growing.”

 The old-style strategy of strictly protecting certain marine areas and limiting harvests had delivered some good results with the rejuvenation of environments and harvests, she said.

 But it was a difficult and costly to implement especially in low-income countries where there were typically multiple coastal fishing communities and extraction methods.

Related to environmental abuse, the abuse of labour continued to prevail in some fishing industries.

 Hicks said her work with poor coastal communities had revealed they typically lacked key nutrients in their diets.

 “And typically there would be a multinational company working the waters just off their coast, bringing in huge volumes of fish that could supply exactly those nutrients,” she said.

 “Redistribution of natural resources has to be considered even if it’s just a matter of leaving a larger portion of the resource where it is to allow poor communities to benefit.”

 Prof Kevern Cochrane of Rhodes University said he agreed with this point, but that it was part of the human condition to grow.

 “We’ve got to recognise the desire of a subsistence fisherman with one canoe to increase his fleet to enable him to better support his family.

“But we have to curtail the greed element.”

 Hicks said the economic growth strategy touted by most governments was the crux of the problem.

 “When is economic growth enough?

“It’s insatiable.

 “We need a sufficiency narrative instead.”