What It Means to Build a Truly Sustainable Ocean Economy

The opportunity is substantial, but regeneration will not emerge from thousands of disconnected projects and initiatives. Oceans function as systems, but our governance remains divided by ministries, sectors, permits, and political boundaries. We need to manage whole seascapes: connecting coastlines, watersheds, nearshore ecosystems and the people and industries that share them. Marine spatial planning can expose trade-offs, account for cumulative impacts and establish where development belongs, where restoration must take priority, and where activity should not proceed.

This governance must place Indigenous Peoples and local communities at its center. They are often the most experienced stewards of coastal ecosystems yet remain excluded from the decisions and capital that shape them. 

The Bird’s Head Seascape in Indonesia shows what a better model can achieve. Across 225,000 sq. km (over 86,800 sq. mi.), traditional community rights over land and coastal waters have been embedded in conservation planning since the early 2000s. Local and government authority has been connected, and tourism revenues help finance conservation and ecosystem protection. A network of marine protected areas now covers more than 52,000 sq. km (over 20,000 sq. mi.). Community-led tourism has diversified incomes, while former “bomb fishers” have been trained as coral gardeners. Ecological recovery, livelihoods, and local authority reinforce one another because they were designed not as separate entities, but as a single interconnected system.