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Tracking Blue Economy Progress through RuleWatcher
- Publishing Team
- Feb 18
- 8 min read
Author
Jessa Danica Villa Agcopra
Master's Student in International Public Policy at the University of Tsukuba (Japan)
Introduction
Blue economy is defined by the World Bank as the “sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health”. All over the world, ocean economy growth for the past 25 years is from Asia and the Pacific (OECD, 2025) accounting for 75 percent. Specifically, Eastern Asian countries accounted for as much as 56 percent in the global ocean economy expansion and the European and Northern American countries had slower growth. But how has the landscape of ocean economy changed further, particularly in the context of biodiversity conservation and management? This article intends to delve on the progress of countries on blue economy particularly on the biodiversity aspect using several functionalities present in the RuleWatcher.
Overview
This article will focus on the blue economy which has several definitions on the web. One of the popular definitions of blue economy is from the World Bank which states that “blue economy is the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, and ocean ecosystem health”. Blue economy is an encompassing term which includes: (i) renewable energy; (ii) fisheries; (iii) maritime transport; (iv) tourism; and (v) waste management.
In the Philippines, the development of the blue economy is one of the priority strategies espoused in the Philippine Development Plan which serves as the country’s medium-term plan for each administration in the next six years. In addition, the blue economy is one of the broad sectors that I have personally handled as part of my line of work back in the Philippines’ Planning Ministry. We have not only been attending meetings or discussions on the blue economy but we have continuously provided technical inputs on various documents on the blue economy and even proposed legislation on its establishment and further development in the Philippines.
For this case, RuleWatcher will be used to gather information on the progress of the blue economy, as reported by the government. RuleWatcher is a web-based platform developed by OSINTech which collates various information automatically from more than 800 government agencies, 45 United Nations agencies, and more than 500 non-government organizations worldwide.
Objective
The purpose of this research is to gather information on the progress of the blue economy from various countries all over the world using RuleWatcher. This will attempt to identify the initiatives and programs implemented by various countries on developing their blue economy. The author spent approximately 5 days in completing this research using RuleWatcher and other online tools such as search engines (e.g., Google), AI (e.g., ChatGPT, Gemini), and grammar checking applications (e.g., Grammarly) and preparing this article.
Step-by-step process of using RuleWatcher
The following are the steps conducted by the author in using RuleWatcher for this case study:
Open RuleWatcher and click “Search Across all Themes”
Fig. 1: Search across all Themes
On the Search box on the upper part of the screen, type in “blue economy”.
Fig. 2: Search by blue economy
Including the “quotation marks” will treat the world blue economy as one phrase.
To further narrow down the search, you can use the filters on the left-hand side of the screen (side bar). Using the filters will allow us to select the:
a. range of the dates we will consider for our research;
b. specific theme/s present under RuleWatcher;
c. region or economic union that will be focused in the search;
d. country/ies to be covered by the search;
e. organization type either it is government, a United Nation agency, NGO
f. specific tags that can be included in the search to further narrow down the article search.
Then, click the “save” button on the upper right-hand corner of the “filter” search to save the selections and rename the saved setting.
Once saved, you can start clicking on the article you intend to read.
For this example, I am using the filter to narrow down the search for blue economy in the context of biodiversity and the organization type is focused on the Government. In this case, this article intends to focus on Government-led or implemented initiatives on the blue economy that are related to the overall theme of biodiversity.
You may also opt to read the overview of the article by clicking “Show More” which will provide an overview of the article.
To check all the themes, tags, and/or categories where the article falls under, you may also click on the “see all” button. I used this to determine how diverse the themes covered in this article are.
To select an article, click on the title of the article and a new tab will open where you will be redirected to the actual website of the chosen article.
Note that some of the articles are published in their respective language. However, RuleWatcher is able to provide an English version of the article’s overview which is a helpful function for users.
The TreeMap button in RuleWatcher provides an overview of the “most talked about” topics under blue economy. For this section, I attempted to consider 50 items related to blue economy.
After which, I double clicked a specific block to show the title of the articles that fall under this topic.
Double clicking on a specific article name will provide an overview of the article including its title, theme/s, and tags.
The Transition button provides an overview of the number of articles on the blue economy that each country has from 2021 to 2025.
When you put your cursor on a specific color for each country, a dialogue box will appear which will inform the user of how many articles were published in relation to the country.
And when you click the color in a specific period, this will show the list of articles published in the identified range of dates for a specific country. The list can be found at the end of the listing of countries.
Results of this research and review
For this research, I solely relied first on using RuleWatcher to look for articles that provide information on a country’s initiatives on the blue economy. These initiatives may include implemented or proposed programs, projects, action plans, or related initiatives focusing on the biodiversity aspect of the entire blue economy.
Some of the tools I used in preparing the drafts are:
(i) AI tools in developing summaries of the initiatives of top countries on blue economy; (ii) grammar checking or writing tools to firm-up potential contents and structure of my draft summary of findings from the articles in RuleWatcher.
Combining these tools helped me to concretize the ideas that I would want to convey for this research.
Among all countries, the European Union (EU) has the most number of articles on the blue economy showing their advance initiatives in this sector. In fact, the recent initiative of the European Union is an investment of 116 Million Euros for 13 projects to restore ocean waters (Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, 2025). These projects are expected to be implemented in various areas such as the Black Sea, Danube River, Baltic and North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, and Atlantic and Arctic regions. In the previous years, the EU has also secured partnerships with other countries such as the Netherlands for Two Billion Euros where one of the areas of focus is the blue economy, particularly the sustainable management of aquatic environment and resources (European Commission, 2022). A similar partnership was also sealed by the EU with Poland in the same year where a total of 76.5 Euros which include support for the future proofing of fisheries and aquaculture sector and the protection of marine biodiversity.
On the side of ASEAN, Indonesia is leading the way for blue economy development. Indonesia’s Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries have established partnerships towards marine conservation, such as with the Gili Matra Bersama Foundation for the rehabilitation of marine ecosystems in the Gili Matra Conservation Area (Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, 2025). Relatedly, the Ministry has also called for the collaboration to protect turtles and cetaceans through the National Action Plan for 2025-2029 (Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, 2025). This initiative was done by the Ministry along with the WWF Indonesia Foundation, Nusantara Nature Conservation Foundation, and various stakeholders from the central and regional governments, academe, research, and civil society organizations. Indonesia has also continuously affirmed its commitment towards sustainable ocean management during the third United Nations Ocean Conference in June 2025. Minister Trenggono mentioned that Indonesia aims to implement more concrete actions as a leader in sustainable ocean management. These actions include the marine conservation areas expansion, quota-based fisheries implementation, sustainable aquaculture, coastal ecosystems monitoring, and community engagement towards marine plastic waste reduction.
As for the Philippines, partnerships also play a critical role in developing the blue economy. One of the recent partnerships of the Philippine government is with the United Kingdom’s Blue Planet Fund which aims to provide assistance to developing countries in protecting marine environments and addressing poverty. In the Philippines, this assistance focuses on areas such as climate adaptation, plastic pollution, blue carbon, and preservation of natural systems and biodiversity (Department of Environment and Natural Resources, 2025). The Philippines remains supportive and committed towards achieving a “bluer economy” as declared by the Philippines during the 3rd UN Ocean Conference (Department of Foreign Affairs, 2025). During this conference, the Philippines laid down its initiatives towards marine conservation which include: (i) prevention of plastic waste to pollute marine environments; (ii) strengthening partnerships of local governments and coastal communities to protect coral reefs and marine turtle nesting areas; and (iii) intensifying youth involvement to promote ocean literacy and stewardship.
Conclusion and ways forward
Using RuleWatcher has allowed me to identify the recent and on-going initiatives of various countries on the blue economy. By setting the filters based on the information that I need to help me formulate inputs, I am able to select a specific focus for my research on the blue economy given that there are several subsectors within the topic.
I think what sets RuleWatcher apart from the other tools that I have used at work (i.e. search engines) is the wide array of references that are available in just one application. Moreover, the references included in RuleWatcher are deemed reliable which is useful in assessing the legitimacy of the sources or references that I am using for my work. Given this feature of RuleWatcher, this system can be used by students, educators, researchers, and even policy-makers.
In the point-of-view of education or school-setting, using RuleWatcher can be used for sharing recent developments or current events on certain topics which will allow students to be introduced to the field of research and identifying credible resources.
Similarly, this can also be one of the considerations of researchers in preparing research proposals to check if there are similar initiatives implemented in another country. In the lens of policy-making, the articles that can be read in RuleWatcher can provide information on initiatives and best practices of various countries on a specific topic or theme. This information can serve as basis or evidence in developing policies that can be formulated or implemented in the Philippines, particularly those which are implemented in areas where the Philippines have similar structure or characteristics.
References:
Department of Environment and Natural Resources. (2025, March 14). DENR
Secretary Loyzaga strengthens development and protection of the Philippines’ Blue Economy through enhanced UK Partnership. DENR.
Department of Foreign Affairs. (2025, June 16). Philippines elected vice
president at 3rd UN oceans conference; highlights need for marine environmental protection and adherence to international law. Department of Foreign Affairs. https://dfa.gov.ph/dfa-news/dfa-releasesupdate/36702-philippines-elected-vice-president-at-3rd-un-oceans-conference-highlights-need-for-marine-environmental-protection-and-adherence-to-international-law
Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. (2025, August 22). EU
invests €116 million in 13 projects to restore ocean and waters. Oceans and Fisheries. https://oceans-and-fisheries.ec.europa.eu/news/eu-invests-eu116-million-13-projects-restore-ocean-and-waters-2025-08-22_en
European Commission. (2022a, June 24). EU Cohesion Policy: Commission
adopts €2 billion Partnership Agreement with the Netherlands for 2021-2027. European Commission - European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_3919
European Commission. (2022, June 30). EU Cohesion Policy: Commission
adopts €76.5 billion Partnership Agreement with Poland for 2021 – 2027. European Commission - European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_4223
Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. (2025, July 2). KKP Dorong
Kolaborasi Multi-Pihak untuk Perlindungan Penyu dan Cetacea - Berita. Kementerian Kelautan Dan Perikanan.
Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries. (2025, July 10). KKP Jalin Kerja
Sama Strategis Perkuat Konservasi Laut Gili Matra. Kementerian Kelautan Dan Perikanan. https://kkp.go.id/news/news-detail/kkp-jalin-kerja-sama-strategis-perkuat-konservasi-laut-gili-matra-gpWk.html
OECD (2025), The Ocean Economy to 2050, OECD Publishing, Paris,
World Bank Group. (2017, June 6). What is the Blue Economy? World Bank.
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