About
We are an interdisciplinary group of researchers specialized in biology, economy, marine sciences, fisheries management, equity or governance. Our aim is to better understand the relations that are established within coastal communities, in order to foster transformative changes that may lead to more equal societies.
Inequality will be one of the global concerns in the 21st century, and oceans play a main role on this issue. They produce vital food, jobs and economic activities (tourism, transport, trading), generate non monetary benefits (knowledge, cultural values, etc.) provide oxygen and stores carbon and heat. But, at the same time, oceans are threatened by cumulative pressures such as pollution, climate change, overfishing and industrialization.
OCEAN BENEFITS
Food
Jobs
Economic activity
Cultural values
Carbon uptake
THREATS TO OUR OCEANS
Pollution
Climate change
Overfishing
Industrialization
Mismanagement
These problems, and their possible solutions, may be faced from an interdisciplinary approach. Not just on an economic dimension, but also from social, environmental, cultural and political perspectives, understanding individual and collective perceptions.
This will be our goal: studying inequalities around the world, getting a wider view, hearing the people and fostering transformations to improve those scenarios.
To do this, we will conduct research on topics such as Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), socio-ecological systems (SES), fisheries management, ocean equity, socio-cultural values linked to small-scale fishing communities, ecosystem resilience, sustainable use of marine resources, vessel ownership, human-nature relations, governance and policy-making decisions.
Projects
EQUALSEA will develop a new transformative framework for ocean equity identify multiple critical drivers which induce social tipping points dynamics and transformative changes across space and time, and contribute to monitor progress towards ocean equity for local communities and top international organizations.
Objectives
EQUALSEA aims to support increased resilience of marine social-ecological systems (SES) by developing a new transformative socio-ecological framework to analyze the role of ocean equity and inequality in the use and distribution of marine resources benefits focusing on three key issues.
Challenges
EQUALSEA aims to address three main challenges: Know how are perceptions of ocean equity and inequality formulated. Analysis of drivers influencing ocean equity and inequalities across space. And exploring differences across time.