Marine Sustainable Development Research Articles

The Role of Port States in Safeguarding Maritime Security and Protecting the Marine Environment

This paper will examine the potential of port states in combating marine accidents; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, as well as ship-sourced pollution first. Then conclude that port states actively take measures to protect maritime security in accordance with the jurisdiction conferred by a number of international conventions and regional memoranda of understanding (MOUs). These enforcement measures are not only benefiting its national interests but also contributes to the whole international community and the sustainable marine development.

How do carbon trading platform participation and government subsidy motivate blue carbon trading of marine ranching? A study based on evolutionary equilibrium strategy method

Amidst the efforts to develop a low-carbon economy, blue carbon sequestration provides new approaches and opportunities for economic growth. Not only will blue carbon sequestration trading increase the value added for marine ranching firms, but it will also be conducive to conserving the ocean ecology and safeguarding sustainable marine development. From the supply chain perspective, this paper develops an evolutionary game model with three players: the marine ranching firm, the carbon trading platform, and the government. The model is then employed to examine the impacts of the carbon trading price, the government subsidy, and consumers’ willingness to pay for blue carbon on the participants’ choice of strategy in a blue carbon trading regime. The MATLABR2016b application is employed to perform numerical simulations and analyses. The following conclusions can be drawn from the research findings: The strategies chosen by the marine ranching firm, the carbon trading platform, and the government affect each other. Both the marine ranching firm and the carbon trading platform are affected by the choices of the other two players, while the government’s choice of strategy is only affected by the platform’s strategy. Reductions in carbon emitted by the marine ranching’s aquaculture activity, increases in the blue carbon trading price, improvements in consumers’ willingness to pay for blue carbon, and deceases in transaction costs to the marine ranching firm and the trading platform all motivate the marine ranching firm and the platform to choose a cooperative strategy. Government subsidies can encourage the marine ranching firm to improve its carbon sequestration capacity and incentivize the platform to cooperate. However, when the subsidy to the platform is too high, the system does not have an evolutionarily stable strategy. If the marine ranching firm reasonably uses the government subsidy to sequester carbon and improve the environmental friendliness of its products, the government’s willingness to subsidize will increase. Our findings will contribute to the theory on managing marine ranching blue carbon sequestration. This paper can provide evidence to improve the utilization of blue carbon sequestration, the development of the blue carbon sequestration trading market, and the design of the government subsidy mechanism.

Aiding ocean development planning with SDG relationships in Small Island Developing States

Promoting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) must contend with the often siloed nature of governance institutions, making the identification of cooperative institutional networks that promote SDG targets a priority. We develop and apply a method that combines SDG interaction analysis, which helps determine prerequisites for SDG attainment, with the transition management framework, which helps align policy goals with institutional designs. Using Aruba as a case study, we show that prioritizing increased economic benefits from sustainable marine development, including those of tourism, provides the greatest amount of direct co-benefits to other SDGs. When considering indirect co-benefits, reducing marine pollution emerged as a key supporting target to achieve SDGs. The results also show that, as in many other small island states, sustainable ocean development in Aruba depends on international partnerships to address global issues—including climate change mitigation—over which it has little control. Using SDG relationships as a guide for institutional cooperation, we find that the institutions with the most potential to coordinate action for sustainable ocean development are those that address economic, social and international policy, rather than institutions specifically focused on environmental policy. Our results provide key methodologies and insights for sustainable marine development that require coordinated actions across institutions. Cooperative institutional networks are essential to achieve SDG targets. Combining SDG interaction analysis with a transition management framework, this study finds that in Aruba prioritizing benefits from sustainable marine development leads to the greatest amount of direct co-benefits to other SDGs.

How do environmental regulation and technological innovation affect the sustainable development of marine economy: New evidence from China’s coastal provinces and cities

As marine economy has entered a new normal, the transformation and upgrading of marine economy has reached a crossroads in coastal regions, and there is an urgent need to change the development mode and the growth momentum of marine economy. Exploring reasonable environmental regulation means and appropriate environmental regulation intensity to promote green technological innovation and lead the transformation of marine economy is the only way for China's marine sustainable development in the future. Through theoretical analysis and empirical tests, this study examines the influential mechanisms of environmental regulation and technological innovation on GTFP of marine economy to provide a theoretical basis for local government and enterprises to make decisions under environmental regulation. The empirical process adopts a direct effect, an intermediary effect, and a threshold effect model based on panel data from 11 provinces and cities in China's coastal regions. The results show that China's marine environmental regulation is still in its initial stage, which is not conducive to the improvement of GTFP of marine economy. Technological innovation plays an intermediary role between environmental regulation and GTFP of marine economy, but the intermediary effect is very small-only 0.0920, so there is still significant room to improve. During the sample period, taking marine technological innovation as the threshold variable, environmental regulation has significant double threshold effect of technological innovation on GTFP of marine economy. Different levels of technological innovation decide which effect, either the “offset effect” or the “compensation effect” dominates. Finally, this paper puts forward the corresponding policy recommendations.

¿Cooperar o no cooperar? Crónica del dilema por el espacio compartido del Golfo de México

Este documento examina el dilema de la gestión de los bienes comunes en un espacio delimitado del Golfo de México. Nuestro interés es revisar las oportunidades que brinda la teoría de cooperación de Ostrom para examinar un caso en un espacio tridimensional marino. La propuesta importa ya que estamos ante el desafío de revisar alternativas y discutir cómo es posible un desarrollo sostenible marino en espacios de costas rurales latinoamericanas. Así que nos proponemos revisar la crónica de la construcción del espacio compartido entre el petróleo y la pesca, donde el mar actúa como el sistema en el que se encuentran los recursos de uso común.

MI Mechanism of Marine Chemical Enterprises Based on the Concept of Sustainable Development

Duan, R., 2020. MI mechanism of marine chemical enterprises based on the concept of sustainable development. In: Li, L. and Huang, X. (eds.), Sustainable Development in Coastal Regions: A Perspective of Environment, Economy, and Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 112, pp. 183-186. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The 21st century is the century of the marine era. The marine economy has become an important part of the national economy. With the increasing pressure of population, resources and environment, the theory of marine sustainable development has become a problem that can not be ignored, especially in chemical industry and other polluting enterprises. Through sustainable development, marine chemical enterprises can achieve sustainable adaptive evolution, which will continuously improve the economic, social and environmental benefits of marine economy. Therefore, as a marine resource-based enterprise, the sustainable development of marine chemical enterprises has great practical significance. By continuously integrating management resources, offshore chemical enterprises can update and change management concepts and methods, which will form a good social mechanism, including enterprise, society, economy, population, environment, etc. Therefore, marine chemical enterprises must improve MI, including innovation of business ideas, organization, management methods and corporate culture.

Relationships between two kinds of MSP in China

PurposeThe major marine functional zoning plan (MMFZP) and marine functional zoning (MFZ) are two important kinds of marine spatial planning (MSP) in China. Their developing and implementation are integral to rational marine utilization and sustainable marine development. The purpose of this research is to study how these two kinds of MSP work in coordination in China.Design/methodology/approachThis paper reviewed the present status of MSP research in China and abroad and presented a comparative study of the MMFZP and MFZ from different aspects, analyzing the relationship between the two.FindingsThe study found obvious differences between the MMFZP and MFZ, with respect to their concept and connotation, purpose and goal, as well as zoning methods and zoning functions. MFZ provides reference with respect to data, zoning methods and partial zoning results for the MMFZP, which in turn takes measures for addressing issues faced by MFZ and promotes the national MSP work.Originality/valueIn the process of developing and implementing the two zoning plans, this paper emphasizes the necessity to strengthen data sharing, reference of zoning techniques and coordination in zoning work, which will help to improve China's marine spatial management.

Evaluating the Coupling Coordination Degree of Green Finance and Marine Eco-environment Based on AHP and Grey System Theory

Zhu, F., 2020. Evaluating the coupling coordination degree of green finance and marine eco-environment based on AHP and grey system theory. In: Al-Tarawneh, O. and Megahed, A. (eds.), Recent Developments of Port, Marine, and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 110, pp. 277–281. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The authors attempt to study the coupling coordination degree (CCD) between green finance and marine ecoenvironment. To this end, it constructs a composite evaluation index system of green finance and marine ecoenvironment based on the domestic and foreign literatures, and then evaluates the comprehensive development level of the two systems using the combination method of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and grey system theory. Meanwhile, the coupling degree model, and model were introduced to measure the coupling degree, CCD and comprehensive coordination index of China's green finance and marine eco-environment. The results showed that as China gradually began to attach importance to green development, the coupling coordination between green finance and the marine eco-environment system are both slowly increasing. The research findings provide a scientific basis for the practice of green finance and marine sustainable development in China.

Theoretical Methods and Applications of Marine Economy and Sustainable Marine Development

Zhang, L. and Cai, S., 2020. Theoretical methods and applications of marine economy and sustainable marine development. In: Yang, Y.; Mi, C.; Zhao, L., and Lam, S. (eds.), Global Topics and New Trends in Coastal Research: Port, Coastal and Ocean Engineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 103, pp. 581–585. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.Together with the rapid development of the maritime economy (ME), the extent and depth of exploitation of marine resources is also increasing and the pressure for sustainable use of marine resources is increasing. To this end, this paper proposes the theoretical methods and applications of marine economy and sustainable (MEAS) marine development. This paper proposes the DEA evaluation method. First, the characteristics, structure, and construction procedures and methods of the evaluation index system of complex systems are studied. The construction methods and principles of the marine economic composite system evaluation index system were discussed, a systematic evaluation index system was established, and an emergy analysis and comprehensive evaluation DEA model for MEAS ocean development were proposed. The research is carried out through the application of examples. This paper finds that China's marine technology investment was valid for DEA in 2014, 2018, and 2019, and that it was non-DEA valid from 2015 to 2018. The DEA effectiveness coefficient values were 0.976489, 0.619141, and 0.808176, which indicates that in 2018 and 2019, science and technology played a significant role in the added value of China's marine industry and the achievement of scientific research results, and the rest of the years were not effective.

What does the product space mean for firms in the development of marine-related products?

The differences in natural resource endowments, scientific and technological activities and historical developments result in a discrepancy between the regional marine industrial structure and the marine economic development level, and the main reason for this discrepancy can be found by analyzing the profitable activities of firms that offer advantages when competing with other firms in other countries. A firm's ability to identify the production and export of marine-related products can be viewed as an essential part of a long-term strategy aimed at supporting marine economic development. We identify a list of marine-related products that have the greatest growth potential for 107 Chinese firms and their related industries and draw a conceptual model of marine-related products at the country and firm levels using the concepts of product space and product proximity, which provides a new policy analysis tool for sustainable marine development. To achieve our goals, we conduct a regression analysis of this hypothesis. We build an improved product space for China and the 107 firms in 2011 and 2012 and calculate the maximum proximity of each marine-related product to products with high revealed comparative advantage (RCA) values for each firm. The results show that the marine-related products with the greatest proximity to the products with high RCA values exhibited the greatest growth. Finally, we also provide new applications for the development of marine-related products as a complementary policy analysis tool for China's marine economic development.

Progress and Prospects of China in Implementing the Goal 14 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Following the entry into force of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, China has rapidly established key areas and priorities for its implementation, and Goal 14 focusing on sustainable marine development (hereinafter referred to as “SDG 14”) has been attached with great importance. This paper illustrates China’s implementation of SDG14 from four aspects: marine pollution control, conservation of marine environment, sustainable utilization of marine resources and international cooperation in global governance, and concludes that SDG14 has been implemented well on the whole in China. On this basis, the paper looks to the future sustainable development of ocean in China, and suggests improving the legal system, strengthening marine environmental monitoring, and advancing international cooperation for ocean sustainable development.

A Mapping of Marine Biodiversity Research Trends and Collaboration in the East Asia Region from 1996–2015

Many countries define policies to manage oceans and coastal areas in order to utilize marine ecosystems strategically. When we reviewed the strategies and policies of various countries in relation to ocean sustainability, we found that biodiversity preservation is a key issue for policies related to sustainable marine development. We investigated the research trends and collaboration status of China, Japan and South Korea regarding marine biodiversity through the analysis of scientific articles using bibliometric analysis. The results showed that Japan collaborated the most with other countries compared to China and South Korea. All three countries collaborated with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries frequently. South Korea showed the strongest inter-collaboration amongst China, Japan and South Korea. Microorganism research is a common research topic in China, Japan and South Korea. Each country demonstrated its own prominent research area, such as local region research in China, deep-sea research in Japan and aquaculture research in South Korea.

International Trade Disputes Related to Fishery Products: Time to Engage A Chinese Perspective?

The recent dynamism shown in China’s participation in trade-related fishery disputes implies key policy shifts in Chinese fisheries and fish trade policy, which attempt to integrate environmental protection responsibilities more seriously into the overall search for a sustainable marine economy. Presence in the World Trade Organization’s tuna and seal products cases, which do not involve tangible trade interests for China, suggests a tentative departure from the trade dominance ideology. It is no coincidence that domestic reform initiatives, such as green and organic fishery labelling schemes, have steadily developed in China. China thus tends to show growing self-motivation, aside from external pressures, to realize sustainable marine development goals. It remains to be seen when it will rightly view universal sustainability obligations from an internationally cooperative and even humanitarian perspective.

Marine protected areas and fisheries restricted areas in the Mediterranean: assessing “actual” marine biodiversity protection coverage at multiple scales

This study uses a tiered approach to assessing progress towards achieving the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) target to increase marine protected area (MPA) coverage to 10% at different scales: the whole Mediterranean Sea, by ecoregions and by countries. It additively considers marine protection coverage by conventional MPAs (cMPAs; tier 1); unconventional MPAs (uMPAs, including international Fisheries Restricted Areas – iFRAs-; tier 2); and Other Effective Area-Based Conservation Measures (OEABCMs, including national FRAs–nFRAs; tier 3). It also discusses the appropriateness of considering tiers 2 and 3 as legal and managerial tools for sustainable marine development in national reporting against international protection coverage targets. At the Mediterranean Sea scale, by mid-2015 there were 1077 cMPAs which covered 6.45% of its area. At the ecoregional scale, only the Western Mediterranean ecoregion exceeds the 10% coverage target. At national scale, four countries (Monaco, France, Spain and Turkey) currently exceed the 10% target for their entire hypothetical Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). The cMPA designations that contribute most to Mediterranean MPA coverage are Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMIs), the Pelagos Sanctuary, Natura 2000 sites and national designations, respectively. When considering uMPAs, the amount of marine area under protection in the Mediterranean reaches 1,632,507km2 or roughly 64.48% of the Mediterranean Sea area; all the ecoregions more than double the CBD coverage target; all countries but Malta meet the target in their inshore waters; and all countries meet the target in their whole hypothetical EEZs. Finally, nFRAs contributed 565km2 of additional protected area and made the percentage of legally protected marine area reach 64.50% of the total Mediterranean Sea area.

Marine environmental awareness among university students in Taiwan: a potential signal for sustainability of the oceans

University students are regarded as future decision-makers in society and have a high likelihood of becoming opinion-shapers in terms of the environment. Their awareness of the marine environment will therefore have a significant effect upon sustainable marine development. This study examines Taiwanese university students’ marine environmental awareness, focusing on environmental attitudes, understanding of marine and coastal issues, and environmental behavior. A total of 825 valid samples in a questionnaire survey are used for the analysis. Overall, respondents possess a highly positive attitude towards the marine environment and a moderate self-reported level of marine knowledge, but are not actively engaged in environmental protection endeavors, particularly ones involving spending personal income and taking legal or political action. Experience in marine-related activities and marine knowledge are important in fostering marine environmental awareness, particularly in regard to environmental behavior. This study addresses the gap between widespread environmental concerns and low engagement in environmental actions by proposing a multimodal approach: improving marine knowledge and experience in marine-related activities, creating safe recreational spaces at seasides, and reinforcing legal education. This study concludes by highlighting the importance of marine environmental awareness in the development of ocean citizenship as well as the sustainability of the marine environment.

Applying SWOT-AHP Analysis in Sustainable Marine Development Plan: Case Study in Shantou Municipality

Having understood the disadvantages of traditional marine development mode, the sustainable development mode, which makes overall planning of land and sea and endorses equal importance to both development and protection, is attracting more and more attentions from coastal regions. To formulate the right orientation of marine development, this thesis attempts to apply SWOT-AHP method, a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis, into strategy formulation. And, by introducing revision coefficient, this thesis modifies the current quantitative calculation methods. Finally, a SWOT-AHP analysis system of sustainable marine development plan has been constructed. In the study of Shantou marine development, strength, weakness, opportunity and threat factors have been listed through symposium and data analysis; attribution and impacts of these factors are calculated from experts’ evaluation. Based on these scores, a strategic quadrilateral is built, which could directly reflect the orientation of Shantou marine development. According to the analysis results, we can see that the advantage of Shantou marine development is obvious. Shantou should take growth strategy to make better use of its strength and opportunity factors; and transform its development mode from the traditional overexploitation to a sustainable one, which highly emphasizes on protecting marine ecological services and achieving the equilibrium of both ecological civilization and economic growth.