Community Understanding of the Concept of Blue Economy and its Socio-Economic Impact on Livelihood in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

This study examines the level of Community understanding of Blue Economy Concept and the opportunities and risks posed by blue economy development in the Niger Delta region. The study aims at assessing the understanding of the barriers and enablers shaping communities engagement in blue economy and the risks of unsustainable blue growth in the Niger Delta region. Qualitative data generated from Focus Group Discussion, interview of key informants collected using unstructured interviews, oral testimonies and questionnaires was employed for the study. The data was subject to transcriptions, rewriting and coding and the responses analyzed descriptively. Results showed that the conceptualization of Blue economy concepts are not currently shaped by communities’ visions for development, nor are they clearly aligned to Agenda 2030. It further revealed that the communities have limited capacity to effectively engage in the emerging economic and governance transitions offered by blue economy which makes many of the Blue Economy change processes to be perceived by the communities as external risks and barriers. This understanding limits the community’s full engagement in unlocking the myriads of opportunities offered by Blue Economy growth to improve their livelihoods choices as majority of the communities’ limit their exploitation of the Blue Economy to prevailing traditional sectors such as marine fishing/aquaculture, maritime transportation, seabed mining and the extraction of sea weed for medicinal purposes’. The need for government strategies to build capacity to not only focus on the community level awareness in terms of financial literacy, business skills and leadership but also target supporting agencies such as the private sector is suggested.