The ocean is a source of food, income and cultural identity for billions of people, while also underpinning global trade, regulating the climate and sustaining an extraordinary diversity of life. Yet it is under mounting pressure from overexploitation, pollution, habitat destruction and climate change. These forces are degrading marine and coastal ecosystems, and undermining the long-term well-being of the communities and economies
that depend on them. Just maintaining the blue economy on a business as usual basis will perpetuate this decline.

This report – written by an internationally diverse group of leading experts from the private and public sectors, civil society and academia – examines how to shift from the status quo towards a regenerative blue economy. Rather than a purely extractive focus on profits and short-term returns, this approach offers an ambitious vision in which ocean-based economic activity helps restore ecosystems, strengthen resilience and support equitable prosperity within planetary limits. The shift it describes asks us not merely to maintain what remains, but to rebuild what has been damaged; not simply to reduce harm, but to create systems that actively renew the ecological foundations on which lasting prosperity depends.

What makes this approach especially valuable is its ability to connect ecological integrity, economic reasoning and social justice in a clear and practical way. Healthy marine ecosystems and thriving coastal communities are not competing objectives – they are deeply interconnected. A regenerative approach requires rethinking investment,
governance, technology and innovation, capacity development and accountability. It challenges decision-makers to judge success not only by the wealth generated from the ocean, but by the extent to which that wealth supports restoration, fairness and intergenerational well-being.

This report arrives at an important moment. Across sectors and communities, there is growing demand for economic approaches that advance both human well-being and ecological recovery. The regenerative blue economy offers a compelling framework – shifting the focus from limiting harm to actively restoring ocean systems. For this reason, this publication will be valuable to business leaders, policy-makers, practitioners, scholars, investors, community leaders and citizens alike. As co-chairs of the Global Future Council for a Regenerative Blue Economy, we recommend this report to all who care about the shared future of the ocean and human prosperity.

Helle Herk-Hansen. Vice-President, Environment, Vattenfall; Co-Chair, Global Future Council on the Regenerative Blue Economy, World Economic Forum

U. Rashid Sumaila, Professor and Director, Fisheries Economics Research Unit, The University of British Columbia (UBC) Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs; Co-Chair, Global Future Council on the Regenerative Blue Economy, World Economic Forum