15 Jun EqualSea Lab is leading the new PECS Working Group: Ocean equity for sustainable futures

We are very happy to announce that our colleagues Maraja Riechers and Sebastián Villasante has been appointed as coordinators of the new Working Group promoted by PECS (Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society). They will be leading the ‘Ocean equity for sustainable futures’ group.

How can we enhance ocean equity to ensure an equitable distribution of benefits & resources? The new #PECSWorkingGroup on ocean equity aims to provide key evidence to this question. Get to know the group under the lead of @MarajaRiechers & @SebVillasante: https://t.co/ME7CNGJ8BF

— PECS (@PECS_Project) June 13, 2022

As PECS explains on their website, “overwhelming evidence shows that current access to ocean resources and associated benefits and harms are distributed inequitably”. Recent global policy discussions (e.g., COP26, World Conservation Congress) to increase momentum for conserving 30% of earth’s land and sea areas by 2030 through area-based conservation measures may well contribute to this inequity. Hence, parallel policy discussions also highlight the strong need for considering ocean equity when implementing protected areas.

The team’s proposal adds that “institutionalising ocean equity in marine conservation is therefore crucial for the well-being of people and the health of oceans”. And they say: “We define ocean equity as a way of distributing marine resources, associated rights, and capacities for participation in decision-making in a way that is ethical and aligns with principles of social justice. Normatively, this translates to ensuring that resources, benefits, and power are not concentrated by rich and powerful actors, and that risks and harms do not disproportionately fall on the poor and vulnerable. We see this as a necessary critical focus for research on oceans and sustainability”.

This working group will provide “key evidence for enhancing ocean equity in the conservation and sustainable use of the marine environment by integrating the concept of relational values and a focus on the inclusion of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities to ensure an equitable distribution of benefits and resources”.

Based on the members’ expertise and empirical research findings, the group aims to answer the following questions:

• What role do (i) diverse nature’s values (i.e., intrinsic, instrumental and relational), (ii) empowering Indigenous People and local communities, and (iii) MPA management/implementation play regarding ocean equity for sustainable futures?
• How can we advance ocean equity in and through (i) transdisciplinary sustainability science, (ii) connecting and comparing place-based social-ecological system research, and (iii) the scaling up and beyond of local initiatives?
• What are leverage points for securing ocean equity in coastal and marine social-ecological systems and how are these points interconnected?

In addition to the coordinators, the working group will have the participation of:

– Nathan J Bennett (Freelance Consultant; Chair, People and the Ocean Specialist Group, IUCN; Principal, The Peopled Seas Initiative, Canada).

– Jessica Blythe, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, Brock University, Canada).

– Antonio J. Castro (Laboratory of Sustainability, Resilience and Governance of Socio-Ecological Systems (SociECOS Lab), University of Almeria, Spain).

– Ignacio Gianelli (CRETUS, Department of Applied Economics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain).

– Sophia Kochalski (CRETUS, Department of Applied Economics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain).

– Jacqueline Lau (ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Australia and WorldFish, Malaysia).

– Natali Lazzari (Vicerectorat de Recerca, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain; Centre de Recherches Insulaires et Observatoire de l’Environnement-CRIOBE, France; CRETUS, Department of Applied Economics, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain).

– Priscila Lopes (Dept. of Ecology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil).

– Sangeeta Mangubhai (Principal Consultant, Talanoa Consulting Fiji; Pew Marine Fellow, Fiji).

– Aisa O. Manlosa (Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research-ZMT, Bremen, Germany).

– Kimberley Peters (Helmholtz Institute for Functional Marine Biodiversity at the University of Oldenburg-HIFMB), Oldenburg, Germany.

– Meenakshi Poti (Systems Ecology and Resource Management Research Unit, Université libre de Bruxelles and Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; Research Affiliate, Dakshin Foundation, India).

– Irina Rafliana (DIE – German Development Institute, Universität Bonn Germany; Agency for Research and Innovation-BRIN, Indonesia.

About PECS

PECS is a Future Earth core-project, one of 21 such global change research projects (initially sponsored by ICSU and UNESCO).

PECS aims to integrate research on the stewardship of social–ecological systems, the services they generate, and the relationships among natural capital, human wellbeing, livelihoods, inequality and poverty.

PECS research is explicitly transdisciplinary and intersectoral, and aims to break down barriers that have impeded understanding of social-ecological transformations. PECS aims to understand interactions across scales, such as fast and slow drivers of social and ecological change, thresholds, traps and time lags, in order to identify appropriate operational scales. A comparative, place-based approach, international in scope, is at the core of PECS research.