Divided by Borders Connected by Blue Line: Prospects and Lessons for Sustainable Ocean Governance in the Indian Ocean Region

ABSTRACT

In last few decades, oceans are perceived only as everyone's resource but no one's responsibility. After the publication of Gunter Pauli's book The Blue Economy (2010) and declaration of UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), there is a call for efficient and sustainable use of ocean resources. Blue economy is all about oceanrelated sustainable development model and has a huge potential in income and employment generation. A fundamental change is required in the way the world's marine economy is managed. The Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives) has a huge coastline, but unlike Small Island Developing States (SIDS), it is hardly able to develop a comprehensive, integrated blue economy policy at regional level due to border and other disputed transboundary issues. All the above-mentioned countries of the Indian subcontinent are part of Indian Ocean Rim region but not part of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) which can play a potential role in building a comprehensive strategy for sustainable management of the Indian Ocean. The Covid-19 pandemic has affected most of the sectors associated with blue economy However, the pandemic has also delivered unusual environmental benefits through reduced economic activity and consequent curb on ocean emissions and air and water pollution. Therefore, the objective of the paper is to understand the prospects and lessons of blue economy in the post-pandemic world order as a common policy paradigm in the Indian subcontinent region for sustainable ocean governance in the near future.