Five developing countries—South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Fiji, and Solomon Islands—are working with UK researchers to rewrite the rules governing their ocean economies before overfishing, plastic pollution, and climate change push marine ecosystems past recovery. Current ocean governance is fragmented: fishing laws ignore mining rights, trade policies overlook human rights, and international agreements rarely reach local fishing communities. This disconnect means vulnerable groups—particularly women and youth—are excluded from decisions about the ocean resources they depend on for food and income. The One Ocean Hub aims to weave together law, science, traditional knowledge, and the arts into a single, coherent framework. Researchers will produce new data on sustainable fisheries, deep-sea mineral extraction, and freshwater resources under climate change, then translate that science into practical legal and policy advice. They will also use artistic methods to bring local communities’ knowledge into national and international decision-making. If successful, the Hub could shift how entire nations balance conservation with economic development. Instead of piecemeal policies that pit fishing against mining or tourism against conservation, countries would have integrated, pro-poor, and climate-proofed governance structures. The direct beneficiaries are the millions of people in these five nations whose livelihoods depend on a healthy ocean—but the governance models developed here could influence ocean management worldwide.
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Over 70% of the earth's surface is ocean. As a global population, we are entirely reliant upon a healthy ocean: it contributes to the renewal of freshwater; it absorbs over a quarter of global carbon dioxide, and it produces half the oxygen we breathe. The ocean has the potential to make significant contributions to sustainable development. Many developing countries already depend on their ocean resources for food, work and livelihoods. Yet we are reaching an ocean health crisis: cumulative pressures such as over-exploitation of its resources, ocean plastics and pollution and climate change, all compounded by multiple competing uses, are pushing the ocean ecosystem to a tipping point. There is an urgent need for more integrated ocean governance, to ensure greater balance between ocean conservation and sustainable use (Sustainable Development Goal 14) and realise the ocean's potential to contribute to poverty reduction, human health, healthy ecosystems on land, climate change mitigation and adaptation, equitable economic growth and decent employment. "We are the sea...we must wake up to this ancient truth...It is time to create things for ourselves, to create established standards of excellence that match those of our ancestors." It is with this spirit that the ONE OCEAN Hub will transform our response to the urgent challenges facing our ocean. The Hub will weave learning from the ocean, and traditional knowledge of the peoples who rely upon it, with scientific excellence, innovative legal approaches and artistic methods. Our aim is to bridge the disconnections in law, science and policy across all levels from the local to the international. We aim to empower vulnerable communities, woman and youth in the blue economy and catalyse the inclusive and integrated governance approaches required to ensure a healthy ocean and flourishing communities and economies. The Hub will specifically address the challenges of South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Fiji and Solomon Islands in realising the economic, socio-cultural and environmental benefits from the ocean. It aims to support these countries' efforts towards developing a sustainable and fair blue economy by providing new scientific data and tools to engage different sectors and groups within society, particularly vulnerable communities, woman and youth, in identifying opportunities, risks and trade-offs to: i) prevent and mitigate negative development impacts connected to the ocean, ii) participate in traditional and emerging ocean activities, and iii) predict the socioeconomic benefits of ocean conservation. The Hub pioneers integrating law and arts, policy, informatics, education, history, anthropology, and philosophy to provide targeted advice on coherent and flexible, pro-poor and gender- sensitive, climate-proofed and transparent laws and policies across the areas of environmental, human rights, science and technology, trade and investment. The Hub will further integrate biology, physics, chemistry, oceanography, ecology, mathematics, socio-environmental sciences and law to advance understanding of sustainable fisheries in the face of climate change impacts, as well as socio-economic and cultural considerations. The Hub will also increase understanding of conservation and extraction options for deep-sea mineral, biological and freshwater resources, integrating biology, ecology, geology, socio-environmental sciences and law. Through innovative use of arts the hub will transcend traditional boundaries in policy, law, and between ocean stakeholders from local communties to international organisatons, to respectfully and effectively include local communities' traditional knowledge in decision-making at the national and local level on the blue economy. The Hub will develop the integrated governance frameworks and strengthen the capacity within commnities to drive innovative approaches to a fair and sustainable blue economy for South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Fiji and Solomon Islands
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