Last week, Hub researcher Kerry Sink (South Africa National Biodiversity Institute) and a team of marine scientists in South Africa embarked on a multi-institutional and multi-disciplinary offshore expedition to enhance the capacity of young southern African scientists and to collect data in outer shelf and deep-sea habitats. The cruise is funded by the Hub.

The distinctive histories and legal trajectories of Ghana, Namibia and South Africa provide important reflections for understanding the current obstructions and opportunities surrounding the recognition and protection of the customary laws of Indigenous peoples and small-scale fishing communities along the coast and sea across diverse contexts in Africa. Hub researchers have identified the need for comparative reflections on the current status of customary laws in ocean governance, after having shared progress of research conducted to date and, most importantly, provided a space for cross-country learning while identifying synergies and opportunities for integration.

• Contributions to the UN General Comment on Children’s Rights and a Healthy Environment – READ HERE
• Brainstorming on new UN guidance on economic, social and cultural rights and sustainable development – READ HERE
• Suggesting new areas of work for IPBES – READ HERE

The global biodiversity community adopted a new global framework to catalyse, enable and galvanise urgent and transformative action at all levels to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. In addition, the UN Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP 15, held on 7-19 December 2022 – Montreal, Canada) also adopted new decisions on marine biodiversity, as well as on digital sequence information, the biodiversity-human health nexus, and on gender that are relevant for the ocean. This blog post reflects on the implications of these recent international decisions for the ocean, ocean-dependent human rights and ocean research with a focus on the GBF.

“Urgent, gender-transformative, rights-based climate and environmental action” is required to achieve gender equality and ecological sustainability– recently said the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment in his thematic report on women’s and girls’ human right to a healthy environment (A/HRC/52/33).

Following on the Hub’s submission made in preparation for this report, this blog post relates the UN Special Rapporteur’s findings on State obligations and business responsibility to respect women’s and girls’ human rights to the marine context.

• How can national human rights institutions and international human rights mechanisms support the protection of small-scale fishers’ human rights? – READ HERE
• Reflecting on IMPAC5 and the need to prioritise Indigenous and community-led marine protection – READ HERE

In February, The Economist launched a film titled ‘Climate change: what is ocean acidification?’. The research conducted by Hub researchers Prof Murray Roberts, Dr Sebastian Hennige, and early-career researchers Kristina Beck, and Kelsey Archer Barnhill (University of Edinburgh, UK) on deep-sea coral is reported in the video (from 6 minutes on).

To celebrate eight years of BEIS international programmes Newton Fund and Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) asked researchers and innovators to tell about the journeys they’ve made and reflect on the many benefits and challenges of doing ‘science beyond borders. Hub researcher Dylan McGarry was asked to write about the experience of taking Empatheatre play Lalela uLwandle (Listen to the Sea) to COP27.

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics for modelling cold-water coral habitats in changing oceans By Georgoulas K, Hennige S, Lee YC (2023). Published in the Journal of Sea Research.

READ HERE

Designing transdisciplinarity for transformative ocean governance By Hills JM and Maharaj PN (2023). Published in Frontiers in Marine Science.

READ HERE

A two-way process – Social capacity as a driver and outcome of equitable marine spatial planning By Jacob C, Diederichsen SP, Fullbrook L, Lombard AT, Rees SE, Rivers N, Snow B, Strand M, Zuercher R, Niner HJ (2023). Published in Marine Policy.

READ HERE