GROW RUP project has been used as a reference in the Declaration on Oceans of the OCTs (see the library of the project: https://www.interregeurope.eu/growrup/library/).
The project was presented at the OCTA – Ocean Conference “From the Poles to the Tropics, OCT’s Blue Landscape” which took place in Brussels the 16th and 17th of October 2019: http://www.octassociation.org/octa-conference-on-oceans.
The Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs), http://www.octassociation.org/, cover a combined Exclusive Economic Zone of more than 17 million km2 constituting one of the world’s largest maritime areas. Four of the ten largest marine protected areas in the world are in OCTs contributing to almost 18% of the global coverage. Oceans are therefore of strategic importance for those Countries and Territories and they have all thus developed actions or policies that are worthy of highlighting and sharing with other Islands and stakeholders.
Globally, the topic of ‘Ocean’ has been gaining more and more importance on political agendas and has been the focus of initiatives such as the “Our Ocean” conference. It will be the central theme for the COP 25 and the next UN Decade of Ocean Science.
The OCTA members were interested in the projects analysed in GROW RUP project and the Action Plans derived from it that concern the sustainable use of the oceans. The partners of the project have all actions in their Actions Plans that concern directly the Blue Economy.
The Servicio Canario de Empleo wants to give special support for business, jobs creation and self-employment in Blue (and green) sectors, but also implement a research development and innovation contact network for Blue sectors.
The Regional Council of Reunion has decided to implement a Blue Institute and a Boat Building integration workshop dedicated to boat renovation.
The Regional Department for Employment and Professional Training of the Azores wants to Increase educational qualifications of workers in the fisheries sector and increase professional education in the blue economy.
The Madeira Employment Institute (IP-RAM) wants to Map the professional skills within Blue Economy context and promote blue entrepreneurship.
Finally, the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique has decided to Ensure the attractiveness of the employments link to the Sea, to Establishment of a Martinique Aquaculture Technical Center with a dedicated research programme.
These action plans will be implemented in the following years.
