ArcBlue

• New report Enhanced Blue Economy Collaboration across Alaska, Greenland and North Norway, April 2024. Read it here.
• The Blue Economy and the Arctic, a side-event at High North Dialogue 2023 conference, April 18, 2023
• From AlaskaNor to ArcBlue - Fisheries and Aquaculture from Alaska via North Norway to Northwest Russia,  a side-event at the High North Dialogue 2022 conference.
• From Blue to Smart Research Collaboration between Norway and the United States, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Washington DC, 26 September 2022.
• Diverse blue economies in the Arctic - how to define and discuss? break-out session on the Blue Economy concept at the Arctic Circle Conference 2022.

Today, Arctic communities are finding novel ways of balancing food security, economic growth, and the protection of the aquatic environment. This is done through product development and improved utilization methods. However, the strength, focus and progress being made in the Arctic blue economy is uneven, with regions making important progress while others lag behind. Because of this, development of the Arctic blue economy faces diverse and variable challenges that vary from region to region. These include social, economic, logistical, and political obstacles.

And yet, the blue economy has great potential to transform Arctic societies, strengthen local value creation and increase employment. We are dealing with sparsely populated regions with a constantly decreasing population.

Within this region, positive side effects from a blue economy will have the potential to encourage cooperation at various stages of the value chain. It will also to increase Arctic cooperation and collaboration between the regional stakeholders from the different Arctic nations.

The aim of the ArcBlue project is to contribute to both blue value creation and development of competence. It will also aim to promote both the exchange of knowledge and cooperation within the blue sectors of fisheries and aqua-/mariculture in the Arctic regions of Northern Norway, Alaska, and Greenland.

ArcBlue will use those three Arctic regions as case studies to create a toolbox about blue economy. This will be used by policymakers to help guide them when making decisions. Through the development of such a digital toolbox, its users will be able to see the consequences of their decisions for the climate and the economy. The ArcBlue toolbox will thus help policymakers and investors to make the right decisions for the blue economy. The focus region can be expanded to other Arctic regions in the future.

ArcBlue is a three-year program (2022-2025), financed by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs within the framework of the Arctic 2030 program. ArcBlue builds on the following:

• The successful cooperation efforts of the AlaskaNor project.
• The broad economic expertise provided by the Arctic Economic Council’s Blue Economy Working Group.
• The Alaska Ocean Cluster.
• The Norwegian Cod Cluster.
• Our recent endeavour to establish a UArctic Thematic Network regarding the ‘Blue Economy and the Arctic’.

ArcBlue will provide the Norwegian Government with a concrete example of successful Arctic cooperation for their objectives during Norway’s Arctic Council Chairmanship 2023-2025.

To achieve our objectives of fostering Arctic knowledge transfer, building regional capacity and providing for examples of regional cooperation, ArcBlue will be divided into three phases:

1. Phase - Blue mapping (September 2022 - August 2023): We will provide an assessment of the key challenges when it comes to developing further value capacity in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors in Northern Norway, Alaska and Greenland. The overall aim is to develop a shared understanding of the common future challenges. These covers everything from governance and management aspects to infrastructure and even cultural and social ones. This mapping effort will include both desktop as well as on-site mapping of stakeholders and will eventually lead to a comprehensive database of the blue economy situation in these three regions.
   
2. Phase - Blue toolbox (September 2023 - July 2024): We will develop a toolbox based on the generated database and input from stakeholders. During this phase, we will have Blue Economy workshops in Norway, Greenland, and the United States, where actors and decision makers from these three regions will jointly work on scenarios for the ArcBlue toolbox.
   
3. Phase - Blue testing and launch (September 2024 - June 2025): The toolbox and our project findings will be officially presented at the Arctic Frontiers Conference 2025. It will also be shared with a broad policy-oriented audience in three capitals: Oslo, Washington, and Copenhagen. These public seminars could essentially serve as part of Norway’s Arctic Council Chairmanship outreach work. Moreover, a public seminar in Copenhagen offers the possibility for discussing “next blue steps” after Denmark will over the AC Chairmanship in 2025.

Norway

• High North Center for Business and Governance, Nord University Business School (Project Leader)
• Fridtjof Nansen Institute
• Arctic Economic Council (AEC) and its Blue Economy Working Group
• Center for the Ocean and the Arctic
• Cod Cluster
• NCE Aquaculture
• Nordic Atlantic Cooperation NORA
• Individual partners from the fisheries and aquaculture sector (Salmon Center Bodø, etc.)

USA

• Institute of the North, Anchorage, Alaska
• University of Alaska, Anchorage, Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER)
• Alaska Ocean Cluster
• Wilson Center
• The Arctic Institute – Center for Circumpolar Security Studies
• Juneau Economic Development Council

Greenland

• Sustainable Fisheries Greenland
• Nuuk Maritime Network
• Greenland Institute of Natural Resources
• Greenland Climate Research Centre
• Arctic Hub
• Greenland Business Association
• Greenland Statistics
• Royal Greenland
• Polar Seafood
• Arctic Prime Fisheries