Mission statement  

Intractable and deep-rooted struggles over ownership, rights, benefits, and human-nature relationships are commonplace on our Blue Planet. Ocean sustainability depends on transformative dialogue, deliberation and conflict resolution to reconcile the divergent interests, values and perspectives of ocean and coastal communities, stakeholders and governing authorities from the local to global level.  

The mission of OCEANS PACT is to develop innovative and practical ways to transform ocean conflict through critical, transdisciplinary reflection on place-based experiences at diverse scales in the Baltic Sea, South Africa, Norway/Barents Sea, India, Brazil and USA.  

Learning from and with stakeholders at the coalface of ocean conflicts through action-oriented research in these diverse settings is foundational for OCEANS PACT. 

 

Stakeholder dialogue   

OCEANS PACT researcher-stakeholder interactions have been unfolding in different ways in the case study settings as relationships are built to transform ocean conflict. Notwithstanding varying levels of engagement by stakeholders, including governing authorities, private sector and civil society actors, Indigenous People, marginalised groups and the wider public, this research is underpinned by stakeholder engagement and dialogue.  

Stakeholder Dialogue Forums will be established to provide strategic guidance on research conceptualization, comparative analysis, and application of key findings.  

Forums will be established at two levels: first, at the project-wide or global scale; and, second, at the case study scale.  

The project-wide Dialogue Forum is made up of about 15 representatives of strategically positioned international governing bodies under the UN umbrella; key INGOs representing environmental and ocean business interests; spokespersons of marginalised ocean resource users; and leading experts on global ocean sustainability and conflict transformation. We plan to hold 1-2 web-based forum engagements (e.g. interactive webinars) per year over the 3-year project (2020-2022), with the possibility of one or two face-to-face meetings at which we bring Dialogue Forum members and research teams together.  

The case-study Dialogue Forums will be made up of an appropriate mix of case-study relevant stakeholders to craft place-based ocean conflict transformation solutions. Case-specific Dialogue Forums will be established in each case study setting. The purpose, constitution and functional operation of each will vary according to distinctive case study needs, circumstances and stakeholder requirements.