MENA countries must chart the future of region’s blue economy

The Middle East and North Africa region is enveloped by some of the world’s most strategic marine waterways and seas, spanning from the coastlines of the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Historically, they have positioned the region as pivotal to trade and tourism, in addition to offering a bounty of marine treasures and vast opportunities for renewable marine energy, ecotourism and sustainable fisheries. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development aptly depicts the blue economy — economic activities associated with the oceans and seas — as “the new economic frontier” and estimates that it will grow to $3 trillion by 2030, nearly doubling its current value.
At present, many complex challenges facing the blue economy remain unsolved in the MENA region. Stressors posed by climate change are already having many perilous effects and a UN study states that a staggering 90 percent of the heat produced by carbon dioxide emissions has already been absorbed by the world’s oceans. The ensuing effects are resulting in rising sea levels, warmer oceans and increased coastal erosion, which in turn are affecting biodiversity and fisheries. Moreover, the rising temperatures are also triggering many unprecedented effects, such as ice melting, marine heat waves and ocean acidification.
Other issues are also aggravating the oceans and coastal waters, such as overfishing, plastic pollution and the destruction of coral reefs and mangroves. With the presence of conflicts in recent years, the region’s geopolitical tensions make it difficult to implement coordinated marine management efforts across borders.
However, it is worth taking a closer look at how several countries across the MENA region are charting a course for their blue economies through a suite of innovative and sustainable policies.
The UAE’s commitment to innovation has encompassed the field of marine research and development, with a number of trailblazing research centers generating pioneering solutions, including the Sheikh Khalifa Marine Research Center, the Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi’s Institute for Oceans and NYU Abu Dhabi’s Burt Marine Biology Lab. These are all working collaboratively with multiple local, regional and global stakeholders to advance marine science in the region.
In another interesting case, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi last year completed its first atmospheric research expedition in the Arabian Gulf with its marine research vessel, Jaywun. This mission was the first in the world to conduct atmospheric research from Spain to Abu Dhabi, covering 25 countries and eight seas over a 10,000-km journey.
In Saudi Arabia, many megaprojects are making headlines due to the impressive scale of their investments and impacts, unlocking many solutions in the fields of marine tourism, sustainable fisheries and marine conservation. One of the Kingdom’s major development projects is the Red Sea Project, consisting of a luxury tourism destination that ensures environmental sustainability and marine ecosystem preservation. 

The region’s geopolitical tensions make it difficult to implement coordinated marine management efforts.

Sara Al-Mulla

Saudi Arabia is also home to the world’s eighth-largest community of coral reefs, spanning about 6,660 sq. km. Earlier this year, the government announced the world’s largest coral restoration project, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Coral Restoration Initiative. It has already established a nursery along the coast of NEOM, in the northwest of the country. The Kingdom is also home to 204 sq. km of verdant mangrove forests and, to preserve this environmental treasure, Red Sea Global has launched a mangrove nursery project with the goal of planting 50 million trees by 2030.
Elsewhere, Oman’s impressive Coral Reefs Garden (Tharwa) coral rehabilitation project is underway. It is aimed at restoring damaged coral reefs, which are crucial for marine life and coastal protection. And Morocco has established marine protected areas for effective fisheries management, ensuring the long-term sustainability of its fisheries while safeguarding marine biodiversity.
Fully harnessing the immense potential of the blue economy will require MENA governments to fundamentally change many of their policy and regulatory systems, ensuring a passionate commitment to preserving the region’s unique environmental landscape.
A diverse array of solutions is available, each catering to different aspects of the blue economy. It is vital to embark on a rigorous marine spatial planning project to map out marine clusters and resources effectively, balancing economic activities with conservation goals. This should go hand in hand with strategic investments in state-of-the-art monitoring systems that can track marine resources and ecosystem health at any point in time to inform policymaking, regulation setting and industry foresight. Conservation efforts must be at the forefront of this commitment, ensuring the identification of marine protected areas, pollution control, rehabilitation programs and green shipping technologies that have lower harmful emissions.
As various MENA countries thrive on coastal tourism, it is important to incentivize businesses to adopt sustainable practices and technologies to create a positive impact on both marine resources and ecotourism. It is also vital to introduce policies and regulations that ensure sustainable practices related to fishing in order to limit overfishing and ensure the long-term viability of fish stocks, especially against the backdrop of the effects of climate change.
In this regard, aquaculture projects are supplementing fisheries stocks in many countries being affected by climate change. Consideration of the protection of marine biodiversity is also imperative. It will be important to develop a competent blue economy workforce that has specialized skills in handling a variety of blue economy projects, including the management of marine technologies, research and monitoring, and the management of special projects.
Collaboration with regional and global players, in addition to the private sector and academic institutions, will maximize the ideation of viable solutions by bringing together the collective efforts of various subject matter experts on blue economy projects. It will be especially important to partner on viable marine research projects and technological innovations in order to come up with pioneering solutions.
As the global focus shifts toward sustainable development, the blue economy offers MENA countries a pathway to harness their rich marine resources in a way that promotes both economic growth and environmental conservation.

• Sara Al-Mulla is an Emirati civil servant with an interest in human development policy and children’s literature. She can be contacted at www.amorelicious.com.