The journey to an inclusive UN Decade of Ocean Science

The futures and action pathway developed here were drawn from a western scientific and cultural view of the world. To ensure the UN Decade of Ocean Science “provide[s] a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity for nations to work together to generate the global ocean science needed to support the sustainable development of our shared ocean ” (p.2, IOC 2019), it is essential to increase the breadth of voices included in the creation of any vision of a sustainable future. An important gap that needs to be forged is acknowledging and integrating the perspectives and knowledge systems of Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge Holders. Traditional knowledge holders have the potential to provide invaluable and often overlooked perspectives on the feedbacks between ocean and human health due to their intimate cultural ties to land and sea, enriching any narrative of the future. For example:
Traditional Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklace practices are under a direct and measurable climate threat which is not only an ecological and cultural disaster but one that at the very least affects Aboriginal people in mental health and economic terms and at worst in some extreme cases destroys their ability to connect to ‘Sea/ Marine country.” Dean Greeno, Palawa Man
In this quote Dean demonstrates the strong link between ocean health (that is threatened for instance by climate impacts) and the physical connection, family interactions, and mental wellbeing (through the activity or necklace making) of Australian Aboriginal people. As a result, we present our paper as just the start of a discussion - a jumping off point for bringing together the diversity of views necessary to envision a sustainable and equitable future.

Conclusions

After carefully considering the main drivers that shape our ocean and human health interactions (worldviews, power and agency, human development and industry, food systems, and lifestyle and connectedness) it is clear that, using current knowledge, we can shape the next decade to either end up in a ‘Command & (Out of) Control’ or ‘Living & Connecting’ future. The latter of these should be our aspiration but achieving it will require immediate action that is maintained throughout the UN Decade of Ocean Science.
Even though in a ‘Command & (Out of) Control’ future (which is our current trajectory if we continue along our Business-as-Usual approach) we will attain some SDGs, these are far fewer than if we aim for the more sustainable ‘Living & Connecting’. Notably SDGs 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life Below Water) or 15 (Life on Land) are unlikely to be met by 2030 if Business-as-Usual prevails. We also contend that health outcomes (SDG 3) are unlikely to be met in a ‘Command & (Out of) Control’ future. If we choose to aim for the more sustainable ‘Living & Connecting’ (and we suggest we should), we are likely to get better outcomes for SDG 1 (No Poverty), SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation & Infrastructure) as well as SDGs 13 (Climate Action), 14 (Life Below Water) and 15 (Life on Land).
To steer us in the direction of ‘Living & Connecting’, we need to focus on creating marine citizenship, achieving a more equitable distribution of power, and greater and more equitable access to resources and opportunities. In the short and medium term, we can start with creating marine citizenship by implementing actions that improve science and health communication initiatives and knowledge exchange strategies. This provides a solid foundation for additional medium to longer term actions, that require more lead time. These medium to long term actions are aimed at guiding targeted behaviour change in individuals, communities and business through incentives, and rules and regulations. Government has an important role to play in enabling actions both in the short and long term, however, industry, NGOs and the community at large also need to take responsibility, and in many instances a concerted effort is required by all parties working collaboratively. While in some cases this would represent a fundamental shift in our approach to achieving the SDGs (e.g. through new and improved partnerships between science agencies and large private global corporations), and thus also require large scale institutional reform to adequately facilitate such changes, doing so will be critical for achieving improved outcomes for both ocean and human health.