BLUE JUSTICE

Supporting climate resilience through equitable ocean conservation

© Lauric Thiault

Climate change is rapidly transforming the ocean with disproportionate impacts on vulnerable societies in least developed countries. Concurrently, the expansion of area-based conservation is also transforming our ocean. Marine protected areas (MPAs) can be effective tools to build local social-ecological resilience to climate stressors and provide other societal benefits.

However, if poorly implemented, marine conservation can also lead to inequitable outcomes, compromising the wellbeing of vulnerable coastal peoples and undermining long-term conservation success. The urgency and magnitude of climate change impacts and implications of inequitable conservation expansion necessitate robust, evidence-based strategies and policies at national and international scales.

Blue Justice will produce original, solution-oriented research based on the synthesis of multiple existing, and newly assembled, global datasets on MPA social and ecological conditions. Specifically, Blue Justice will examine the relationships between MPA governance and social-ecological outcomes, generating novel insights on the conditions that promote equity and climate resilience in vulnerable coastal groups (including women and Indigenous groups), and produce the first global evidence-base on innovative pathways towards greater equity and resilience in marine conservation.