A CALL has been made to have a strong scientific approach to understanding the Blue Economy so as to ensure long-term prosperity for all Tanzanians.
The call was made over the weekend at the stakeholders’ workshop here in Dodoma ahead of the UN World Oceans Day this week.
Available statistics show that sectors related with Blue Economy contributed a total of 7.7 billion US dollars to Mainland Tanzania’s gross value added (GVA) in 2020.
The workshop was meant to discuss research results of the project “Socio-Economic and Ecological Assessment of the Blue Economy in Tanzania 2022: Application of UNECA’S Blue Economy Valuation Toolkit”.
The workshop was conducted by Dr Asiya Maskaeva of the University of Dodoma and Mr Jerry Mang’ena, the Executive Director – Aqua-Farms Organisaton who were involved by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) Sub Regional Office of Eastern Africa (SRO-EA) as consultants in August 2022.
The workshop was facilitated by the world-leading consultancy company DT-Global.
DT Global, through its Spanish branch, is currently, working with European Union on economic development and environment-focused projects in many African countries.
DT Global actively supports researchers from developing countries, especially women and junior professionals, in addressing the socio-economic and environmental aspects of circular economy, while collaborating actively with Aqua-Farms Organisation and Dr Maskaeva in the context of Tanzania.
“In this regard, to facilitate international academic collaborations and enable Tanzanian researchers to become more connected with the global blue economy research community, they must be fully aware of what blue economy entails and of how its multifaceted activities can impact the overall Tanzanian economy,” noted Dr Maskaeva.
Experts at the workshop said that Mainland Tanzania’s Blue Economy involves both marine and fresh waters. It consists of activities related to coastal tourism, ports, transportation, fisheries and aquaculture. According to the BEVTK estimation, these sectors contributed USD 7.7 billion to Mainland Tanzania’s gross value added (GVA) in 2020.
In 2020, the total contribution of ecosystem services of the Blue Economy to Mainland Tanzania was 1.6 times the country’s GDP.