Integrated maritime policy to boost Blue Economy

Gunter Pauli designed the Blue Economy concept. The concept of ocean economy that came out of the 2012 Rio+20 conference is popularly known as the blue economy. In Bangladesh, the issue of blue economy came into discussion following the settlement of maritime boundary delimitation disputes with Myanmar and India. The settlement of the disputes has awarded Bangladesh a territorial sea covering 118,000 square kilometres and an exclusive economic zone extending to 200 nautical miles. This offers Bangladesh an opportunity to explore and utilise marine resources for economic development. Blue economy, based on marine resources, should be for sustainable development that denotes development not only for today but for future also.
According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, the sovereignty of coastal states extends to the air space over the territorial sea as well as to its bed and subsoil, to exclusive economic zone and to continental shelf. According to UNCLOS, the exclusive economic zone is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea. It shall not extend beyond 200 nautical miles from the baselines from which the breath of the territorial sea is measured. It is truly an economic zone because the coastal state has varying rights to anything of economic value in the zone. According to Article 56 of UNCLOS, the coastal State (Bangladesh) has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters adjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil and conducting other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the economic zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents and winds. Thus the sovereign rights in the EEZ are specially limited to the seabed, its subsoil, and the waters superjacent to the seabed. Under UNCLOS, except using winds to produce energy, the coastal state has no right to regulate air space for military operation above the EEZ. Article 56 grants coastal states jurisdiction over the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations and structures, marine scientific research,  protection and preservation of the marine environment etc. Article 77 of UNCLOS states that the coastal State is entitled to exercise sovereign rights over the continental shelf for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources and other non-living resources of the seabed and subsoil together with living organisms belonging to sedentary species.
In exercising the sovereign rights for the exploitation of marine resources, Bangladesh can be a model for development of blue economy like the European Union, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore, Brazil etc. The concept of blue economy of Bangladesh can be developed, but not limited to, traditional and emerging sectors such as shipping and port facilities, seaborne trade, fisheries, coastal tourism, aquaculture, renewable blue energy, biotechnology, submarine mining etc.
Oceans offer enormous potential for the generation of renewable energy-wind, wave, tidal, biomass, and thermal conversion and salinity gradients.  According to article 56 of UNCLOS, Bangladesh is entitled to explore such renewable blue energy of EZ to produce energy. This renewable energy sources could help diversify our energy portfolios and secure higher levels of energy security. Like other coastal states particularly in EU, the highest potential for electricity generation can be in the offshore wind turbines sector. Global offshore wind capacity is growing at the incredible rate of 40 per cent per year, producing 7,100 megawatts of electricity in 2013. From this, it can be predicted that the growing demand of electricity can be mitigated using wind for producing electricity in Bangladesh.
Eighty per cent of global trade by volume, and 70 per cent by value, is carried by sea and handled by ports worldwide. According to the 2013 edition of the Review of Maritime Transport of UNCTAD, global seaborne trade increased by 4.3 per cent with the total reaching over 9.0 billion tons in 2012 for the first time ever.  
If we want to be benefited from China's economy, the world's largest economy according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and to develop blue economy based on global seaborne trade linking seaborne trade among coastal states, the three ports namely Chittagong port, Mongla Port and Pira port are to be developed as transit points. Globally, 350 million jobs are linked to marine fisheries, with 90 per cent of fishers living in developing countries. Marine fisheries contribute at least 20 per cent of total fish production in Bangladesh and 500,000 people fully and directly dependent on the sector. According to the Bay of Bengal Large Maritime Ecosystem Project run under the supervision of FAO in 2009, from the Bay of Bengal about 6 million tons of fishes accounting for 16 per cent of world production are produced annually and about 4.5 million people are engaged in the fisheries sector.
But sustainable blue economy and blue growth for sustainable development is not possible without ensuring maritime security, protecting and preserving marine environment, conserving marine living and non-living resources and preventing marine pollution. Piracy, slave and drug trafficking, drugs and money laundering, human trafficking, arms trafficking, narco-terrorism have become a common phenomenon in the high seas and EEZ areas of Bangladesh. Oil, noxious or harmful substances from ships and discharge caused by collisions/grounding or a blow-out of an offshore oil well very often pollutes the sea and 80 per cent of marine casualties are  caused or aggravated by human errors. In Bangladesh, oil and chemical substances discharged from the industrial zone in the north area, sewage discharged from the urban areas, oil spill, deck drainage in the mouth of the river and the growing of ship breaking industry are primarily responsible for marine pollution.  
Global climate change is also a threat to our marine biodiversity. So, the effects of global climate change on marine environment and biodiversity along with blue economy and sustainable development should be considered specially. Now what is most important for Bangladesh for sustainable development through blue economy using marine resources is to enact an integrated maritime policy focusing maritime security, maritime pollution, preservation and protection of marine living and non-living resources, maritime scientific research and transfer of technology, protecting marine environment and global climate change. It can be formulated taking into consideration the United Nations Convention on the law of the Sea 1982, the conventions adopted by International Maritime Organisation (IMO), conventions adopted by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) etc. Article 266 of UNCLOS deals with development and transfer of maritime technology and subsequently urges states in article 275 to establish national and regional centres for marine scientific and technological centres. As effective scientific research is a basic precondition for rational exploitation of the sea resources, Bangladesh should seek international cooperation, work with international organisations such as International Maritime Organisation (IMO), UNEP, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), International Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and subsequently develop marine scientific research in Bangladesh.  
Dr. Kamal Uddin Bhuiyan is Professor and Head, and Md. Jahangir Alam, Lecturer, Department of Law, World University of Bangladesh. [email protected]