The Future of Fisheries Co-Management in the Context of the Sustainable Blue Economy and the Green Deal: There Is No Green without Blue

Stella Sofia Kyvelou (), Dimitrios G. Ierapetritis and Michalis Chiotinis
Additional contact information
Stella Sofia Kyvelou: Department of Economic and Regional Development, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 176 71 Athens, Greece
Dimitrios G. Ierapetritis: Department of Economic and Regional Development, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, 176 71 Athens, Greece
Michalis Chiotinis: Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, School of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 157 80 Athens, Greece

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 10, 1-24

Abstract: Appropriate governance structures are extremely important for fishery-dependent communities in developing integrated territorial development strategies and an adaptive capacity for change, including a climate one. This paper assesses to what extent fishery co-management schemes (e.g., fishery LAGs, being regional/local governance instruments in fishing communities) are strengthening sustainability. The latter includes improving energy efficiency, promoting renewable energy sources (RES), coping with the climate crisis, minimizing environmental impacts, and promoting a sustainable blue economy. For detecting the policy aspects of aligning climate neutrality and a sustainable blue economy, the research lens focuses on the Greek Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs), given that these are mostly located in coastal/marine and insular territories with significant blue growth potential. To map and assess their capacity and efficiency in pursuing Green Deal objectives, a co-development process with FLAG managers was put in place. The results and findings of this process reveal the scarcity of sustainability and blue-economy-related strategies. The key conclusion is that a transition to a post-carbon blue economy on a local level requires an understanding of the evolutionary dynamics of fishery co-management schemes. The latter, being multi-sectoral structures, may boost dialogue and cooperation to harmonize local development strategies and EU policies. Maritime spatial planning (MSP), as an evolutionary governance process itself, can be a driver for making FLAGs evolve and strengthen commonization, blue justice, and equity for fishers.

Keywords: maritime spatial planning (MSP); Green Deal; blue economy; fishing communities; fisheries co-management; FLAGs; evolutionary governance; climate change; local development; commonization; blue equity; Greece (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/10/7784/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/10/7784/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:10:p:7784-:d:1143015

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().