Dean Ronald Mendoza highlights the importance of marine spatial planning in blue economy forum

 

Last October 28, 2019, Dean Ronald U. Mendoza presented Ateneo Policy Center’s paper on the blue economy during the “Science Policy Forum and Workshop on the Sustainable Development of the Philippine Blue Economy” of the National Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) in Quezon City.

In his presentation, Dr. Mendoza argued on the significance of good governance and marine spatial planning (MSP) in growing the Philippine blue economy. MSP is an integrated framework for the sustainable management of ocean resources and currently, only the provinces of Bataan and Batangas are implementing it. The country’s maritime sector has a large potential yet relatively small footprint so far (if measured traditionally), with only 4.3% of the population employed and 1.31% GDP contribution in 2016. 

Dr. Mendoza also discussed emerging ocean industries such as seabed mining, ocean thermal energy conversion, and tidal wave energy.

For more information about the blue economy, the working paper is available here.