ONE OCEAN HUB

Issue 7/2024

ONE OCEAN HUB

TURNING THE TIDE

Connecting at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP 16) in Cali, Colombia

The 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 16) will be the first Biodiversity COP to take place since the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework at COP 15 in December 2022 in Montreal. COP 15 was pivotal in introducing human rights standards into the Convention, thereby creating a new bridge with One Ocean Hub research on ocean governance, climate governance, ocean science and human rights.

Hub Deputy Director Philile Mbatha will represent One Ocean Hub at the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP 16) from 18 October – 1 November 2024 in Cali, Colombia.

If you wish to meet Philile while in Cali, including to discuss opportunities for supporting One Ocean Hub’s ongoing work in relation to legacy outcomes, or other potential partnerships and collaborations, please contact her: philile.mbatha@uct.ac.za

By Philile Mbatha & Elisa Morgera

New Films by the One Ocean Hub!

Taking us on a journey, the short films demonstrate how One Ocean Hub is collaboratively influencing decision-making processes and practices at different scales, with the goal of shaping the future of the ocean for justice and sustainability.

The films demonstrate how Hub research and approaches bring together collaborators, including community members, scientists, lawyers, artists and decision-makers, government, civil society organisations and private sector who collectively explore innovative methods to work together on issues affecting the ocean, coastal communities and the planet. What is apparent is a sense that the Hub has participated in and contributed to the beginnings of a new era for transdisciplinary ocean research.

Both ‘Waves of Impact’ and ‘Different ways of knowing: Exploring diverse understandings and meanings of the ocean’ provide a platform to take stock of how far the Hub has come since the early days of establishing the network, right up to the opportunity to come together in-person at our Closing Conference which took place in May 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa to discuss and plan for the Hub’s future. The Hub has strived to curate a transdisciplinary space which has proved both complex and consistently challenging, but also incredibly rewarding for those who have fully engaged with it.

By Jane Moore

What role can higher education play in development and sustainability across Africa?

This was the question explored in the event, Our Shared Future: Developing Our Joint Pathway for Impactful Partnerships in Africa, organised by the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow (UK) on 9-10 October 2024.

Philile Mbatha, Deputy Director of One Ocean Hub, presented on the innovative approaches to international partnerships piloted by the Hub. Marly Muudeni Samuel, Hub PhD candidate at the Glasgow School of Art, gave insights into her experience of working with Hub approaches in Namibia, drawing on her research using augmented reality to enhance understanding about ocean knowledge and heritage of coastal communities.

In her keynote address to the conference, Joyce Msuya, Acting UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, said: “Strathclyde University’s One Ocean Hub is a shining example of exactly the kind of partnership that we need more of…”

By Pippin Searle

MAKING WAVES

Advancing children’s human rights and climate justice

Protecting children’s right to a healthy environment, including a healthy ocean, is essential to ensure climate justice. Hub Director Elisa Morgera and early-career researcher Sophie Shields contributed to two international conferences on children’s human rights and climate justice, connecting One Ocean Hub research findings with a wide network of children’s rights and climate justice experts.

By Elisa Morgera

New Learning Pathway on the One Ocean Learn: Blue Humanities

A brand new Learning Pathway has been launched on the One Ocean Learn knowledge-translation platform, focusing on Blue Humanities: an inter- and multidisciplinary area of study that explores the multiple and complex relationships between humans and the ocean. As a subfield of Environmental Humanities, Blue Humanities bring together disciplines such as literature, history, philosophy and cultural studies, among others, offering a holistic understanding of our relationship with the waters of the world’s ocean.

Blue Humanities offers a pathway to not only deepen understanding of the ocean but also to navigate the complex interplay between conservation, economic development, and societal well-being. As such this Learning Pathway links closely to topics covered in other Learning Pathways on the platform, including The Ocean and Human Rights, The Ocean and Climate Change and The Cultural Heritage and Ocean Governance.

By Milica Prokic

New art exhibition on One Ocean Learn – The sea is in our blood

An exciting new exhibition has been added to the knowledge-translation platform One Ocean Learn, presenting an illustrated poem by Hub PhD researcher Menka Vansant. The poem traces the stories and knowledge of the fisherfolk from Port Nolloth in South Africa’s Northern Cape that Menka engaged with during fieldwork in this small fishing and diamond mining town. The poem speaks of the fishers’ deep, embodied knowledge and spiritual bonds with their coast, but also of changes they have been noticing on their shores such as the shifting behaviours of whales and fish which they attribute to climate change.

By Milica Prokic

EARLY-CAREER RESEARCHERS

Environmental Science students, art and the Blue Economy in South Africa

This blog post provides a brief summary of a day spent with a group of environmental Masters and PhD students from the South African Environmental Observation Network’s (SAEON) Graduate Student Network, funded by the National Research Foundation in South Africa, drawing on Hub research to demonstrate the power of art in making marine research more equitable and inclusive within the context of the Blue Economy.

By Nina Rivers

PUBLICATIONS

Gender Dimensions of Vulnerabilities, Adaptations and Alternative Livelihoods of the Closed Season in Elmina – Ghana: A Qualitative Study. Publication authored by Ansah, J. W., & Oduro, G. Y. (2024) in Coastal Management, 1–20.

Read publication here >>

Equity, Sustainability and Transformation in the BBNJ Agreement Publication authored by Morgera E (2024) in F. Humphries (Ed.), Decoding marine genetic resource governance under the BBNJ Agreement (Springer, forth)

Read publication here >>

UPCOMING EVENTS

Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) (21 October – 1 November 2024)
Webinar: The role of arts-based methods for transformative ocean governance within One Ocean Hub research (5 November 2024)
2024 United Nations climate change conference (UNFCCC COP 29) (Azerbaijan, 11 – 22 November 2024)
Scoping Meeting for the IPCC seventh assessment report (Malaysia, 9 – 13 December 2024)

SEE EVENT DETAILS HERE >>

Resources

FILM: 'Waves of Impact'

Watch the film here >>

FILM: 'Different ways of knowing: Exploring diverse understandings and meanings of the ocean'

Watch the film here >>

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One Ocean Hub is an independent programme for collaborative research for development, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). GCRF is a key component in delivering the UK AID strategy and puts UK-led research and the heart of efforts to tackle the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.