Blue economy: Maritime and sustainable

Global change and climate change are two sides of the same coin: their impacts on the planet take the largest toll on the most vulnerable groups. Not only do different communities or regions have unequal access to basic levels of well-being, but they may each have different abilities to take action against these negative impacts.

This contradicts the vision of the ocean as a common good. The ocean provides an essential ecosystem service to the entire planet, but is also humanity’s greatest shared wealth, the guiding force of what we now call the blue economy. The blue economy describes both the use of natural resources and activities that use the ocean for transport and commercial purposes, but it is, above all, a new way of thinking and interacting with nature.

Enduring activities include sustainable fishing and responsible aquaculture, renewable energy sources, potable water, plant and animal marine resources, as well as marine biotechnology and other genetic resources. They also include activities centred on coastal and marine environments, from ecotourism to local trade.

To this common heritage we can add the cultural, esthetic and physical and emotional health benefits provided by a sustainable natural environment. All of this represents an incomparable opportunity to make countless sustainable resources accessible to all people, communities and nations.

Rawdah Mohamed at Vogue Scandinavia

Vogue Scandinavia launches in August 2021, led by editor-in-chief Martina Bonnier. Focused on Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, sustainability will be a key topic for the magazine. Rawdah Mohamed, featured here for Cartier, will be the Fashion Editor.

Grandeur suits Mohamed, Vogue wrote in 2019. At the time the influencer was a healthcare professional working with autistic children. She also signed with a modeling agency but did not receive a warm welcome in Paris, Vogue continues.

“I really wanted [fashion] to be a place where I could just be myself and everyone would just accept me for who I am,” she says. “I was very sad to realize that, no, this is yet another place where I still have to fight to be me and to be able to free to dress however I like and to look however I like.”

Well known for her street style as a hijab-wearing Muslim woman, Mohamed, who is also of Somali heritage, believes that her appointment will impact her community. “It has a huge impact for Muslims, and I see this as [a] collective achievement to better understand the world of fashion,” she said.

“Vogue Scandinavia has taken the diversity issue to the next step, meaning creating [a] work environment where people of different backgrounds are being valued,” said Mohamed, whose April Instagram post with “hands off my hijab” written on her hand started a campaign that trended on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok. “We can participate in conversations, take part in decision-making processes and are able to have an influential voice in fashion.”