Webinar ‘Green ports, anchor points for the blue economy and regional maritime clusters’

On 10 June 2025, as part of the Blue Week organised annually in Morocco,   AESVT Maroc (Association des Enseignants des Sciences de la Vie et de la Terre) and AMCDD (Alliance Marocaine pour le Climat et le Développement Durable), organised a webinar titled ‘Green ports, anchor points for the blue economy and regional maritime clusters: Experiences from the Mediterranean basin and challenges for Morocco.’ This was done together with the WestMED initiative – National Hub Morocco.

Around thirty people attended, including more than 25 representatives from civil society, academia and local authorities.

In the opening remarks by the Moroccan Hub of the WestMED Initiative, Mr Hassan Agouzoul, Mr Abdelaziz Janati (National Coordinator of the AMCDD) and Mr Abderrahim Ksiri (President of the AESVT) the importance of the blue economy for the equitable economic and social development of people in Morocco and around the world was emphasised. Abderrahim Ksiri (President of the AESVT) emphasised the importance of the blue economy for the equitable economic and social development of people in Morocco and around the world, and recalled in particular that the third United Nations World Ocean Conference (UNOC 3) – is currently taking place in Nice, with the main theme of ‘Accelerating action and mobilising all stakeholders to conserve and sustainably use the ocean’. In this context, the 1st ‘Africa for the Ocean’ summit was co-chaired by Morocco and France, during which HM King Mohammed VI sent a clear message on the urgent need to speed up the implementation of a national blue economy strategy in Morocco, and on the importance of South-South cooperation and regional integration around ocean areas.

After an introductory presentation on the state of play of the blue economy in Morocco by Mr Hassan Agouzoul (National Hub Morocco of the WestMed Initiative), Mr Leonardo Manzari (National Hub Italy of the WestMED Initiative) and Mr Matteo Bocci (Deputy Head of the EU Assistance Mechanism for Sea Basin Strategies) gave their presentations. Matteo Bocci (Deputy Head of the EU Assistance Mechanism for Sea Basins) gave their presentation, followed by a very interesting discussion on the need to mobilise Moroccan civil society and give it the skills and methods it needs to make an effective and structured contribution to the development of the blue economy in Morocco at national and regional level.

Here are some takeaways from the debate:

• It is important for Moroccan civil society, as well as the Association of Moroccan Regions, to join the alliance of maritime clusters or the relevant WestMED technical thematic groups (green shipping; aquaculture; sustainable tourism; blue skills; etc).
• To make these partnerships effective between the Westmed initiative and national civil society, it is essential that AESVT Morocco and AMCDD officially designate their representatives within the various Thematic Groups of the Westmed initiative (2 or 3 people) and send their requests notified by email to the National Hub Morocco in order to set up an institutional process of collaboration.
• The WestMED initiative’s thematic groups have been in existence since 2020, and their success and particular interest for their members stems mainly from the fact that the members of these groups highlight important issues that concern them and that are generally shared by the different countries represented. Morocco, for example, is very active in the sustainable transport group.
• Civil society and the academic world should be actively involved in preparing the roadmaps for setting up the pilot clusters in the Tangier-Tétouan-El Hoceima and Souss-Massa regions, but it is also important to prepare for the creation of maritime clusters in the 7 other coastal regions of the Kingdom of Morocco, e.g. Marrakech-Safi..
• Ports are currently being developed primarily as economic and technological hubs, but it is also vital to develop their cultural and social dimensions. The blue economy strategy currently being developed in Morocco will take this into account and, in particular, will give the necessary impetus to align the portfolio of necessary investments with that of educational programmes (e.g. creation of new skills in fishing, aquaculture, biotechnologies, desalination, eco-tourism, renewable energies).
• Collaboration between civil society and the academic world must be put in place to prepare the human resources needed to develop the blue economy. To begin developing this collaboration, it would be useful to contact the blue economy unit of the ministry responsible for the budget to participate in the preparation of the national blue economy strategy, which will be launched in the coming months.
• Technical resources exist at WestMED level: the Blue Skills & Ocean Literacy technical group, the blue skills development programme, the Mediterranean blue skills panorama, training on cluster management. The UNOC 3 recommendations on blue skills should also be taken into account..

Download the Agenda | Original event announcement

You will find below the recording of the webinar (in French) as well as the presentations.

Next webinar
A forthcoming webinar on 20 June 2025 at 10am (Moroccan time) will go into more detail about innovative blue skills, and will also include a training course to build the capacity of civil society to set up bankable ‘Blue Economy’ projects. More information/ registration