Coastal Livelihoods & Economies
Sustaining Jobs and Thriving Coastal Economies
*The estimate of a goal’s likely near-term future status is a function of four dimensions: Status, Trend, Pressure, and Resilience.
Sub-Goals
Livelihoods and Economies is divided into two
sub-goals: Livelihoods, and Economies. Each is measured separately because the
number and quality of jobs and the amount of revenue produced are both of
considerable interest to stakeholders and governments, and can have different
patterns in some cases.
Select a sub goal
to learn more
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Livelihoods
Why Are Livelihoods Important?
The Livelihoods sub-goal addresses how well the identity and livelihoods provided by marine-related sectors are sustained. It is measured by the number of marine-related jobs relative to a country’s growth (or decline) in employment rates over the last five years.
In order to capture job quality, per capita wages for marine sectors are also measured relative to the national average of per-capita wages for all sectors. Jobs are summed across sectors because people may shift their occupation from one sector to another, but still remain involved in the marine-related economy overall.
The marine sectors evaluated for jobs and/or wages are: 1) commercial fishing 2) mariculture 3) tourism and recreation 4) shipping and transportation 5) whale watching 6) ports and harbors 7) ship and boat building 8) renewable energy production (wind and wave)
Global Sub-Goal Score
84
Likely Future State
-1%
*The estimate of a goal’s likely near-term future status is a function of four dimensions: Status, Trend, Pressure, and Resilience.
What Does This Score Mean?
The Livelihoods sub-goal is a combination of jobs and wages.
The jobs portion of the sub goal uses a no-net-loss reference point, which means that jobs must keep pace with national trends in employment. The reference point for wages is that the per capita marine wages in each country, after adjustment for purchasing power parity, are compared to wages in the country with the current best standing.
A high score indicates that there has been minimal net loss in the number of marine jobs or level of marine wages in a country over the past five years compared to these reference points. A low score indicates that current performance has declined significantly when compared with performance five years prior.
Current Score
The current score of 84 indicates that jobs and wages have moderately declined in the last five years and there is potential for improvement.
As it can take several years for data to be reported, analyzed, archived and made available, lag times are inherent in many of the results reported by the Ocean Health Index (OHI). For that reason, losses in jobs and wages associated with the 2008 recession could be greater than this result suggests.
84
N/A0102030405060708090
How Is It Measured?
Each goal is evaluated on the basis of four dimensions
Present Status
Present Status is a goal's current value (based on the most recent available data) compared to a reference point.
Trend
Trend is the average percent change in the present status for the most recent 5 years of data.
Pressures
Pressures are the sum of the ecological and social pressures that negatively affect scores for a goal.
Resilience
Resilience is the sum of the ecological factors and social initiatives (policies, laws, etc) that can positively affect scores for a goal by reducing or eliminating pressures.
Pressures
Pressures are human-caused stressors that influence both ecological and social systems, negatively affecting the ability of a goal to deliver its benefits to people.
Status
Status refers to the current value of a goal relative to its goal-specific reference point. The reference point is the best condition for a goal that can reasonably be achieved; it is a target to aim for when taking actions to improve ocean health.
Resilience
Resilience refers to the social, institutional, and ecological factors that positively affect the ability of a goal to deliver its benefits to people.
References
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Review of the state of the world marine fishery resources. (Fisheries and Aquaculture, Policy and Economics Division FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department: Rome, Italy, 2011).
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Economies
Why Are Economies Important?
The jobs and revenue produced from marine-related industries directly benefit those who are employed, but also have substantial importance to many others who value the indirect economic and social impacts of a stable coastal economy.
The marine sectors evaluated for jobs and/or wages are:
1) commercial fishing 2) mariculture 3) tourism and recreation
4) shipping and transportation 5) whale watching 6) ports and harbors 7) ship and boat building 8) renewable energy production (wind and wave)
Global Sub-Goal Score
67
Likely Future State
-7%
*The estimate of a goal’s likely near-term future status is a function of four dimensions: Status, Trend, Pressure, and Resilience.
What Does This Score Mean?
The reference point for Economies is that a country’s marine-related revenue must have no net loss and must keep pace with growth in GDP (or sustain losses no greater than the national decline in GDP).
Since it can be subjective to establish the optimal level of revenue for a given country to aspire to, the reference point chosen was the revenue five years prior to the current year. The goal gets a perfect score when coastal economies had no greater loss or increased faster than the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the last five years. A score becomes lower as relative loss in revenue increases.
Current Score
The current score of 67 indicates that revenue from the marine related sectors measured declined faster than other economic sectors.
The score is low compared to the Livelihoods sub-goal, suggesting that revenues declined much more than jobs and wages did. This may be due to the fact that global data on revenue are lacking for some marine-related sectors, including tourism, offshore wind and wave energy, coastal development, scientific research, etc.
If the missing sectors increased faster than non marine-related economies, then this score is lower than it should be.
67
N/A0102030405060708090
How Is It Measured?
Each goal is evaluated on the basis of four dimensions
Present Status
Present Status is a goal's current value (based on the most recent available data) compared to a reference point.
Trend
Trend is the average percent change in the present status for the most recent 5 years of data.
Pressures
Pressures are the sum of the ecological and social pressures that negatively affect scores for a goal.
Resilience
Resilience is the sum of the ecological factors and social initiatives (policies, laws, etc) that can positively affect scores for a goal by reducing or eliminating pressures.
Pressures
Pressures are human-caused stressors that influence both ecological and social systems, negatively affecting the ability of a goal to deliver its benefits to people.
Status
Status refers to the current value of a goal relative to its goal-specific reference point. The reference point is the best condition for a goal that can reasonably be achieved; it is a target to aim for when taking actions to improve ocean health.
Resilience
Resilience refers to the social, institutional, and ecological factors that positively affect the ability of a goal to deliver its benefits to people.
References
Dyck, A. & Sumaila, U. Economic impact of ocean fish populations in the global fishery. Journal of Bioeconomics 12, 227–243 (2010).The State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2010. 197 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations: Rome, Italy, 2010).O’Connor, T, Campbell, S, Coretz, R & Knowles, T Whale Watching Worldwide Tourism numbers, expenditures and expanding economic benefits. (Economists at Large: Yarmouth, Massachusetts, USA, 2009).

