Social Equity for Oceans

We are working to address inequity and social injustice in ocean management by studying the socio-cultural implications of environmental changes, conservation burdens of various fisheries policies and socially responsible seafood consumption.

Nereus Research Associate Lydia Teh (University of British Columbia) writes a blog about the Bajau Laut in Malaysia and their struggles with fishing and way of life. She discusses the balance between marine biodiversity conservation and the social side of the Bajau Laut communities, to include securing basic rights such as food, shelter, education, and an adequate standard of living.

Who controls the narrative on the environment? Nereus researchers have been delving deeper into work on coastal Indigenous fisheries and as they develop relationships with Indigenous community members around the world, some are starting to rethink many of the core concepts of ocean governance.

Coastal Indigenous people eat, on average, 15 times more seafood per person than non-Indigenous people in the same country, finds a Nippon Foundation-Nereus Program study published today in PLOS ONE.

December 2, 2016 | IndigenousCoastal

First Nations fisheries’ catch could decline by nearly 50 per cent by 2050, according to a new study examining the threat of climate change to the food and economic security of indigenous communities along coastal British Columbia, Canada.

Publications

Blasiak, R., Jouffray, J.B., Wabnitz, C.C.C., Sundstrom, E. and Osterblom, H., 2018. Corporate control and global governance of marine genetic resources. Science Advances 4(6), eaar5237. link

Finkbeiner, E. M., Bennett, N. J., Frawley, T. H., Mason, J. G., Briscoe, D. K., Brooks, C. M., Ng, C. A., Ourens, R., Seto, K., Switzer Swanson, S., Urteaga, J., Crowder, L. B., 2017, Reconstructing overfishing: Moving beyond Malthus for effective and equitable solutions, Fish and Fisheries, 10.1111/faf.12245, link

Kittinger, J. N., Teh, L. C. L., Allison, E. H., Bennett, N. J., Crowder, L. B., Finkbeiner, E. M., Hicks. C., Scarton, C. G., Nakamura, K., Ota, Y., Young, J., Alifano, A., Apel, A., Arbib, A. Bishop, L., Boyle, M., Cisneros-Montemayor, A. M., Hunter, P., Le Cornu, E., Levine, M., Jones, R. S., Koehn, Z., Marschke, M., Mason, J. G., Micheli, F., McClenachan, L., Opal, C., Peacey, J., Peckham, S. H., Schemmel, E., Solis-Rivera, V., Swartz, W., Wilhelm, T. A., 2017, Committing to socially responsible seafood, Science, 356(6341), 912-913, link

Wabnitz, C. C. C, Cisneros-Montemayor, A. M., Hanich, Q., Ota, Y., 2017, Ecotourism, climate change and reef fish consumption in Palau: Benefits, trade-offs and adaptation strategiesMarine Policylink