Lessons from the Caribbean to Scale the GCC’s Blue Economy

The GCC can advance a sustainable blue economy by applying lessons from the Caribbean in regional governance, marine planning, and de-risked finance

Situated between gulfs, straits, and seas, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is ringfenced by an abundance of long coastlines, aquatic ecosystems, and sea routes. Saudi Arabia boasts the eighth-largest coral reef community, and the region is home to approximately 16,000 hectares of mangroves. Despite this resource wealth, increasing temperatures and salinity due to climate change, alongside industrial, residential, and tourism activities, have deteriorated the marine environment.

Capitalising on coastal and marine resources is gaining momentum as a strategic diversification opportunity in the Gulf. The blue economy refers to the promotion of economic growth, social inclusion, livelihood improvement, and environmental sustainability in oceans and coastal areas. Currently, blue economy activities contribute minimally to GDP output, largely due to fragmented planning, governance, and coordination. Several recent GCC policies intend to change this narrative by situating blue economy prospects within broader Vision 2030 objectives, aiming to accelerate fisheries development, port and logistics infrastructure, and coastal tourism, while prioritising sustainability and climate mitigation efforts, as shown in Table 1.

Source: Author’s own

To advance the GCC’s blue economy beyond siloed approaches, the region can apply key governance and finance takeaways from the Caribbean, a region that has spent the past 10 years solidifying a coordinated approach to build a sustainable blue economy. Like the GCC, the Caribbean is home to middle to high-income countries where hydrocarbon wealth constitutes a significant portion of GDP and where mutual interests in trade, the blue economy, and sustainable tourism converge. The Caribbean’s economic sectors also depend considerably on shipping and tourism while grappling with declines in fish stocks and biodiversity due to climate change and sector-inflicted damage. 

The Caribbean: A Leader in Blue Governance and Finance

The Caribbean excels in its regional leadership and progress in establishing governance frameworks such as marine spatial planning and deploying innovative blue financing mechanisms, all while prioritising socio-environmental concerns.

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has developed a global best practice for regional blue economy governance and cooperation in its endeavours to expand traditional maritime fisheries, shipping and tourism sectors while exploring new industries in aquaculture and renewable energy. In 2013, OECS endorsed the Eastern Caribbean Regional Ocean Policy (ECROP) to implement marine spatial planning and zoning mechanisms in the region. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) is an operational policy agenda focused on managing economic growth while reducing conflicts over natural resource assets and pressures on marine ecosystems. From 2017-21, the World Bank’s Global Environment Facility launched the Caribbean Regional Ocean Project (CROP) to implement ECROP sub-components. Since CROP’s inception, nearly every OECS member state has developed National Ocean Policies (NOPs), advancing frameworks for integrated marine planning and management as well as marine data collection and ocean literacy. 

The Caribbean excels in its regional leadership and progress in establishing governance frameworks such as marine spatial planning and deploying innovative blue financing mechanisms, all while prioritising socio-environmental concerns.

The Caribbean also has the highest concentration of blue finance instruments, having spearheaded strategies that foster local capacity building for conservation, catalyse financing for blue-green projects, and safeguard infrastructure from disaster. Funded by the Green Climate Fund, the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) functions as a regional Conservation Trust Fund, distributing annual endowment payments to National Conservation Trust Funds to link ecosystem restoration to carbon markets and generate local revenue. In tandem, the Caribbean Blue-Green Bank pools public and private funding to de-risk projects and distribute capital for larger-scale adaptation and mitigation projects. Moreover, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) covers damage caused by extreme weather events like hurricanes, triggering payouts based on predetermined thresholds across predetermined boundaries, as opposed to lengthy post-disaster claims processes. Through this mechanism, Jamaica recovered US$ 150 million in financial protection after Hurricane Melissa. When combined, these mechanisms facilitate the efficient flow and use of capital for mangrove conservation, renewable energy, and disaster recovery. 

Success and Limitations of the Caribbean Case

CROP was successful in 1) expanding small-scale MSPs, 2) ensuring equitable sovereign representation and interstate coordination at a regional level, and 3) safeguarding community livelihoods. Although the initial aim of CROP was to reduce sectoral conflicts over ocean resources, it also helped achieve conservation targets, map high-value sea areas, and evaluate the impact of human activity on the marine environment. OECS-led planning also helped countries without technical capacity to cultivate large-scale MSPs in line with consistent frameworks, setting the foundation for transboundary planning. CROP also included Strategic Environmental and Social Assessments and Grievance Redress Mechanisms to enable tailored community-led planning. Despite strong regional grounding, one disadvantage stems from OECS’s reliance on external consultants, which has created ambiguity regarding who will assume supervisory responsibility of MSP development after the CROP project ends. 

Two key lessons from the Caribbean can be applied to the Gulf context alongside the overarching need to anchor socio-environmental considerations: 1) Strengthen a regional governance approach to streamline national MSP development and 2) De-risk blue economy sectors through blended and innovative finance structures. 

With the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), World Bank, and others, the Caribbean has successfully formulated blue economy financing strategies. Issued by CCRIF, the Caribbean Ocean and Aquaculture Sustainability Facility (COAST) showcases how small-scale projects can be grouped into bankable portfolios that yield dual ecological and economic benefits and how regional cooperation can align monitoring standards and enable shared data platforms. The CBF also successfully leveraged concessional finance from blended finance structures to absorb early-stage risk for private investors. Despite progress in blue finance mechanisms, overarching financial markets remain underdeveloped, highlighting the need for transparent policy frameworks that adhere to concrete blue finance principles such as those of UNEP-FI. To combat this issue, the Caribbean Economic Financing Project (BlueFin) is actively working to streamline the enabling environment for blue economy transactions. 

Applying Lessons from the Caribbean to the GCC Context

The GCC suffers from siloed governance and limited cross-border data sharing, resulting in fragmented coordination. Moreover, innovation and economic priorities dominate the GCC’s blue economy agenda, while social and environmental concerns remain secondary. The Caribbean, on the other hand, balances a dual-lens approach which positions the blue economy as both a driver of innovation and a source of natural capital and livelihoods. Thus, two key lessons from the Caribbean can be applied to the Gulf context alongside the overarching need to anchor socio-environmental considerations: 1) Strengthen a regional governance approach to streamline national MSP development and 2) De-risk blue economy sectors through blended and innovative finance structures.

1. Governance Recommendations

Regional collaboration will be crucial to managing transboundary issues like marine pollution and declining fish stocks. Adopting an approach resembling CROP in the GCC would help support national MSP development, data collection, and intra-coordination over marine resources. To balance potential trade-offs stemming from coastal resource regulation, pairing MSPs with Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) approaches that emphasise social protection and labour interventions would help compensate costs, incentivise behavioural change, and safeguard livelihoods. Implementing strong regional governance and national ocean policies would, in turn, improve the bankability of emerging blue economy sectors while promoting environmental protection. Fostering a pipeline of local talent would help overcome issues of operational sustainability and promote domestic technical know-how. 

2. Blue Finance Recommendations

Given the relative infancy of blue finance in the region, the Caribbean offers regional initiatives that can potentially be replicated in the GCC to overcome challenges inhibiting finance catalysation, such as managing high risk while protecting communities and the marine environment. For instance, the GCC can pool its sovereign wealth to develop a blended finance mechanism similar to the CBF or COAST to de-risk investments and mobilise private capital for sectors in nascent stages, such as aquaculture, that may encounter investment hesitancy from banks. Adopting parametric insurance can also enhance investor security by protecting infrastructure, coastal resources, and communities against extreme heat events, oil spills, or piracy. Learning from COAST, the GCC can better integrate gender-responsive and community benefit-sharing mechanisms for its upcoming blue finance products and frameworks. Few assessments explore the feasibility of blue financing in the Gulf, but the region is progressing in capitalising on profitable sectors such as shipping, port development, and countering marine pollution. To illustrate, DP World became one of the first corporate blue bond issuers, investing US$100 million in sustainable maritime transportation, port development, marine ecosystem conservation and restoration. Emirates NBD also recently launched a Dual-Tranche Blue-Green Bond. 

Source: Author’s own (Compiled using the World Bank Report)

Conclusion

In 2023, the GCC and Association of Caribbean States (ACS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding, endorsing a Joint GCC-ACS Action Plan to strengthen cooperation on water resource protection, marine environment preservation, and sustainable development. Thus, there are many opportunities for formal collaboration and forums to share lessons learned. 

As the GCC evaluates inward progress towards its blue economy objectives, keeping in mind the importance of regional coordination and marine spatial planning, as well as derisking through innovative blue finance structures, and simultaneously prioritising socio-environmental considerations, will be crucial.

The Blue Economies for Coastal Resilience Programme for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region was also launched in mid-2025 to address fragmented governance and coordination, improve coastal management and resilience, and assess blue finance opportunities in the region. As the GCC evaluates inward progress towards its blue economy objectives, keeping in mind the importance of regional coordination and marine spatial planning, as well as derisking through innovative blue finance structures, and simultaneously prioritising socio-environmental considerations, will be crucial.

Leigh Mante is a Junior Fellow with the Energy and Climate Change Programme at Observer Research Foundation, Middle East.