Crafting a sustainability transition experiment for the brazilian blue economy

Abstract

This paper analyses the perception of Brazilian high-level ocean-related governmental authorities in charge of steering future pathways for the national ocean economy. We adapted and applied a model for evaluating sustainability transition experiments to visualize what ought to be the ingredients of an experimental agenda focused in advancing the country's marine spatial planning (MSP) as a fundamental instrument for achieving a shared Vision of blue economy for Brazil. Our results point that such a vision does not currently exist to guide the ocean governance system, raising attention for potential gaps in the consideration of environmental sustainability and social equity that needs to be addressed when shaping one. We discuss what ought to be the core ingredients of a national-level transition experiment for advancing MSP in Brazil (inputs, processes, outcomes and results). The adoption of a network-based MSP transition experiment in Brazil, from an initial technically-oriented to a subsequent process-oriented approach, may improve the sociopolitical arena's functional ocean governability, by (1) promoting a process-framework for improving the overall presence and quality of area-based governance-related knowledge-exchange; (2) supporting the policy-innovators quest for integrated governance through imagination and rationalization of appropriate institutional changes; (3) providing space for streamlining disparate governance responses into co-evolutionary pathways; (4) measuring improvements in the performance of innovative governance attempts; and (5) allowing for involved parties to confront asymmetric power relations in the shaping of a more environmentally sustainable and socially equitable ocean economy.