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As a member of the global research community gathered on the “Too Big To Ignore” platform, Mundus maris contributed to the event focused on Blue Justice organised already on Monday, 7 June 2021.

The introduction by Svein Jentoft set the scene and placed the cases presented in the context of three orders of governance that are crucial to ensure justice to small-scale fisheries around the globe.

The individual examples were all taken from chapters of a forthcoming book “Blue Justice: Small-Scale Fisheries in a Sustainable Ocean Economy”  to appear before the end of the year (see the facsimile to the right).

Sadly, many of these document unjustices slapped on small-scale fishers in many different parts of the world that cast doubt on the merry discourses about a Blue Economy.

Mundus maris was therefore particularly happy to contribute a chapter focused on how transitions to justice might look like and what the empowering methods deployed through the small-scale fisheries academy can contribute to meet this challenge.

In their chapter, Cornelia E Nauen and Maria Fernanda Arraes Treffner explain the inclusive methodological approach. Its underlying principles are people-focused and support the realisation of their vision of positive change. They showed some concrete results women and men in Yoff, Senegal, have achieved as a result of using the methods.

For the online event, a short video offered a succinct example of some early achievements. During the panel discussion, Cornelia and Maria Fernanda insisted on the central role of being people-centred and starting with their vision of change that mattered to them as the compass guiding all implementation steps.

Mundus maris is interested in collaboration with other groups, organisations or projects in other countries to test the approach elsewhere, for example. in an English speaking country, in order to explore the scalability beyond the local context in Senegal. Further collaboration within Senegal is also most welcome to extend the positive effects for all partners.

Image Credit: https://www.mundusmaris.org/index.php/en/projects/2021/2502-wod21imp-en?start=1

How to better complete the range of World Ocean celebrations than with a musical journey around the globe, but this time not only in virtual space, but on the pleasant lake side of Kessel-lo, Louvain, Belgium.

Saturday, 12 June 2021, early evening, families and people of all ages gathered leisurely around the pavillon to listen to enjoy the play of Kristina Kebet, piano, and Sara Fontán Ferreira, cello.

Carefully prepared by Maria del Carmen Patricia Morales, Mundus maris Vice President, the mild breeze and the chattering birds formed the enchanting background to the concert.

During the short pause, Cornelia E Nauen of Mundus maris reminded the audience of the organisation’s decade-long work for ocean literacy, ocean protection and using its resources in more intelligent and sustainable ways. She recalled a study suggesting that five million tons of fish more than at present could be harvested sustainably from European waters, if only less juveniles were caught and more adult fish left in the water to reproduce. She invited the audience to help moving our societies to a more respectful relationship with the ocean.

Image Credit: https://www.mundusmaris.org/index.php/en/projects/2021/2502-wod21imp-en?start=6

Congratulations to this year’s Mundus maris Awardees selected from 61 submissions from 10 countries by the international jury. The theme chosen by the UN for this year’s World Ocean Day was “The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods”. The theme allowed for a wide variety of vistas. We invited submissions in the form stories, poems, paintings and video divided into age groups to account for different life stages. Covid may have reduced the numbers of contributions, but certainly not the quality.

See more winners here: https://www.mundusmaris.org/index.php/en/projects/2021/2502-wod21imp-en

Image Credit: https://www.mundusmaris.org/index.php/en/projects/2021/2502-wod21imp-en

On World Ocean Day (8th June 2021), countries from all four corners of the world – from India to Guyana, South Korea to Austria have pledged to support the ‘30 by 30’ commitment which is being championed by the UK-led Global Ocean Alliance and the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, co-chaired by the UK, Costa Rica and France.

This next milestone follows a successful meeting of the G7 Climate and Environment ministers, during which all members agreed to champion the global ‘30×30’ target to conserve or protect at least 30 percent of the world’s land and at least 30 percent of the world’s ocean by 2030, as well as committing to ‘30 x 30’ domestically.

Members of the Global Ocean Alliance and/or the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People

A Facebook live in French organised by Surfrider Europe and the Sewer Museum of Brussels on the current state of plastic pollution of our Ocean and waters, from source to solution as part of the activities surrounding the exhibition ‘Making the invisible visible’. Speakers include Frédérique Ries, Member of the European Parliament and Gaëlle Haut, from the NGO Surfrider Foundation Europe. Join us on Facebook at 11am.

We are pleased to announce the speakers for our upcoming webinar on the use of space technologies in ocean conservation on June 10th!

Our speakers have a breadth of experience in this field and will explore space technologies’ application to both measure impacts and provide solutions to marine challenges. They will also highlight the importance of science for policymaking.

We are pleased to welcome:

Nathalie Pettorelli, Head of the Environmental Monitoring and Conservation Modelling team at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL)

Glen Wright from the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI)

Nina Bhola from the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)

Iain Shepherd from the Directorate General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries of the European Commission (EC – DG MARE)

Looking forward to be part of this webinar? Sign-up here: https://bit.ly/3hSKJR3 3243

 

Image Credit: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPYIzBnBaWz/

World Ocean Day is coming soon! To celebrate the ocean, the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) will continue its virtual North Sea dive on Wednesday evening 9 June (20:00). In the second webinar in this series, we will stop in the water column, the largest ecosystem on Earth and also the habitat for sharks. Prof. Gudrun De Boeck (University of Antwerp) answers questions such as how dangerous are sharks in the North Sea? Is it true that sharks have to keep on swimming to get enough oxygen? And why do fossil shark teeth in particular wash up on the beach? For everyone with a taste for more sea in these corona times!

The ocean plays an integral role in the survival of our planet, but right now, it’s under attack and is losing the battle. Climate change, overfishing, habitat destruction and pollution have joined forces to push nature at sea to the brink.

But what can be done? And how can the EU turn the tide to save our seas?

Join BirdLife Europe & Central Asia, ClientEarth, Oceana, Seas at Risk, Surfrider Foundation Europe and WWF to celebrate World Ocean Day with an online event (June 8, 12:30-14:00) where we will dive into the challenges that marine and coastal ecosystems face, and how EU policy must act to overcome them.

On World Ocean Day, hear from an IP licensing expert and business strategist and the founder and CEO of PlanetCare, a European SME founded by a lawyer turned innovator, CEO and campaigner for cleaner oceans. This webinar will examine intellectual property licensing from the point of view of the deal making process, licence content and business leverage. Challenges specific to SMEs will be addressed.