Seychelles, UAE co-hosts of ‘Blue Economy Summit’
On the initiative of President James Michel, Seychelles will be co-hosting a ‘Blue Economy Summit’ with the United Arab Emirates in Abu Dhabi between January 19 and 20, 2014.
The ‘Blue Economy Summit’ will coincide with the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), the largest gathering in the region on sustainability and is the opportune platform for Seychelles to promote the concept of the ‘Blue Economy’.
President Michel has called on coastal states and small island developing states (Sids) to find ways to harness the potential of the 'Blue Economy', notably marine-based tourism, fisheries and coastal and marine resources, and also to protect their resources in the long run.
“Too often, global trade and investment is driven by multinational companies extracting resources from oceans, without enough thought given to either protecting the resource or ensuring that the people of that region are benefiting enough. So many developed and industrialised nations are prepared to subsidise unsustainable fishing practices, and unsustainable resource extraction. And yet there is never any talk of subsidising marine protected areas,” he said.
The goal of the Abu Dhabi meeting is to discuss how to utilise the Blue Economy as a tool to shift development in Sids and coastal states towards a sustainable development trajectory building on the Rio+20 consensus.
The ‘Blue Economy Summit’ will coincide with the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), the largest gathering in the region on sustainability and is the opportune platform for Seychelles to promote the concept of the ‘Blue Economy’.
President Michel has called on coastal states and small island developing states (Sids) to find ways to harness the potential of the 'Blue Economy', notably marine-based tourism, fisheries and coastal and marine resources, and also to protect their resources in the long run.
“Too often, global trade and investment is driven by multinational companies extracting resources from oceans, without enough thought given to either protecting the resource or ensuring that the people of that region are benefiting enough. So many developed and industrialised nations are prepared to subsidise unsustainable fishing practices, and unsustainable resource extraction. And yet there is never any talk of subsidising marine protected areas,” he said.
The goal of the Abu Dhabi meeting is to discuss how to utilise the Blue Economy as a tool to shift development in Sids and coastal states towards a sustainable development trajectory building on the Rio+20 consensus.
Forrás: www.nation.sc