Activities
LARGE OCEAN NATIONS FORUM ON BLUE GROWTH
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As part of the Danish presidency of the Nordic Council of Ministers (NCM) in 2015, the Faroese Ministry of Fisheries assumed responsibility for a three-year presidency programme entitled Growth in the Blue Bioeconomy. In 2016, NORA signed a contract with the Ministry of Fisheries for the implementation of the last two projects in the programme, one of which became the Large Ocean Nations Forum on Blue Growth.
The forum was organised by the Government of the Faroe Islands, the Nordic Council of Ministers and NORA in close cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec). It was held on 2-4 October 2017 in St George’s Bay, Malta.
The aim of the forum was to facilitate substantive discussions about enabling factors and barriers to blue growth, as well as to allow for an exchange of experiences among Large Ocean Nations in a global perspective. It built on UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water) and the attendance by the Fisheries Minister of Seychelles at a 2015 conference in the Faroe Islands. An informal meeting between a group of fisheries ministers during the conference highlighted that Large Ocean Nations are similar in many way and share numerous challenges.
Thematic sessions involving comparable cases from across the globe shaped the forum, and a Blue Fashion for Blue Growth session was held. The main purpose of the thematic sessions was to exchange practical and policy-relevant experiences about what has worked and what has not, and to explore the reasons why. This should help develop a greater understanding of how policymakers can create enabling conditions for blue growth.
The participating nations were: Cabo Verde, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Grenada, Iceland, Malta, Mauritius, Norway, Papua New Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Seychelles and Vanuatu.