Inequality in the blue and green economy: a systematic review of access, justice and sustainability outcomes

The Blue and Green Economy (BGE) framework promises sustainable development by integrating marine (blue) and land-based (green) resources. However, inequalities persist in access to these resources, justice in their distribution, and sustainability in their management, particularly in coastal communities of the Global South. The research examines these disparities through the lens of political ecology (resource access inequalities) and environmental justice (distributional, procedural, recognition), and UNEP (2021) reports on BGE policies. The study used a systematic literature review, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Protocols (PRISMA-P) approach to ascertain works on this topic and identify gaps that need to be addressed to inform policy and practice adequately. Findings from most studies revealed that there are access barriers where marginalised groups, such as women, male-dominated fisher associations, coastal communities, and forest-dependent communities, face exclusion from decision-making and resource benefits. Further, for environmental justice, most studies found that weak legal frameworks fail to protect indigenous rights such as fishers in the Western region. Also concerning the sustainability tradeoff, most studies revealed that short-term profit agendas undermine long-term resilience. Importantly, this review identifies that the blue economy is systematically more exclusionary than the green economy along all three justice dimensions, and that exclusion mechanisms differ structurally between the two, a distinction not previously mapped through an integrated access-justice-sustainability lens. The study proposes a community-led governance model, integrating traditional knowledge with policy reforms, to advance equitable BGE practices.