Geopolitical imaginaries in climate and ocean governance: Seychelles and the Blue Economy

Abstract

Climate change and ocean management are significant challenges for small island developing states (SIDS). Compounding these challenges, research suggests that the ability of SIDS to enact environmental governance, and their ability to mobilise international support, remain constrained by resource limitations and broader geopolitical discourses of marginality. However, Seychelles’ Government has challenged these imaginaries via its engagement with the “Blue Economy” as a framing for ocean-climate governance. This paper argues Seychelles’ construction, and utilisation, of the Blue Economy is built upon particular geopolitical imaginaries underpinning ocean-climate governance in SIDS. Drawing on elite interviews conducted in Seychelles in 2017, this paper explores how the Seychelles Conservation and Climate Adaptation Trust (SeyCCAT) acts as a mechanism that incorporates ocean governance and climate adaptation. It argues the Blue Economy serves as a geopolitical imaginary that underpins Seychelles’ ocean-climate governance. Moreover, elites have drawn upon three separate geopolitical island imaginaries to justify Seychelle’s role within the Blue Economy, Seychelles as: a pristine island state, an island of experimentation, and a large oceanic state. This paper will argue that such geopolitical imaginaries underpin ocean-climate governance through the Blue Economy and highlight the significance of considering them in analysing the Blue Economy. Further, it highlights the important insight of elite perspective in uncovering the geopolitical logics underpinning ocean-climate governance in SIDS.