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Excitement in and around the European Parliament. Droves of primarily young people standing in line to get their entry passes. They were among the 2000+ people registered for the 'Beyond Growth' Conference in the European Parliament, convened in hybrid mode. Only about half could participate in person. How can we all live dignified lives within planetary boundaries, the one planet we must share with organisms on the land, in the ocean and with fellow citizens everywhere?

The terms ‘vulnerability’ and ‘viability’ are usually studied in the context of socio-cultural and political-economic settings. In these cases, they would refer to vulnerability from and viability in challenging external circumstances, such as the consequences encountered by ecosystem-dependent communities in the Sundarbans in India and Bangladesh. However, the speed and quality of transition are directly proportional to the psychological constitution, worldviews, and resilience of the individual and their sum total collective.

The beginnings of geoethics about a decade ago initiated by Silvia Peppoloni and Giuseppe Di Capua, geologists from Rome, were rather whimsical. The geoethics work stream at the 2023 Annual Assembly of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) in Vienna has grown into a full day's programme. Mundus maris has repeatedly contributed to this encouraging development both at EGU conferences and in associated books projects. This year there were even several presentations reporting on field work and experiences on how to account for a range of different ways to express knowledge, inside and outside of scientific epistemologies.

When gas discoveries of 425 billion cubic meters were confirmed in 2015 for the coastal areas shared between Mauritania and Senegal, it spawned hope, such as providing electricity to the roughly 30% of the estimated 18 million Senegalese without access. At that time, the local artisanal fishers who had brought money into the communities of Guet Ndar in St Louis and others, were already struggling with many hardships such a coastal erosion of their villages and loss of life at sea. Worst of all was, however, the competition by foreign industrial vessels and gradual loss of access to the most productive fishing grounds reachable with their open boats, locally called pirogues. 

Upon the invitation of Prof. Madan M. Dey, Chair of the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Texas State University in San Marcos, Mundus maris Vice President Prof. Stella Williams paid a visit to campus on 13 April 2023. In the occasion, she taught a class of post-graduate students from India, Bangladesh and the USA summarising some of her rich research, teaching and, indeed, life experience on promoting women and youths in agriculture and how to support them to grow into leadership roles with a focus on Nigeria.

On April 4, the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Institute (GoGMI), based in Accra, Ghana, welcomed high school students from across the country to a maritime career fair. On offer were free ocean literacy presentations, lots of information about careers and networking opportunities. The students had beforehand participated in a survey to understand their perceptions of ocean careers. GoGMI is a local partner of the Development of Ocean Tecnical Capacity with African Nations (DOTCAN) Institute of Nova Scotia, Canada. It had invited Mundus maris Ghana to enrich the programme with an information booth.

 

 

This talk by Foluke Omotayo Areola provided an overview of the major challenges to the sustainability of small-scale fisheries and their governance in Nigeria. It addressed teh gaps in the administration of the legal instruments in the sector and discussed obstacles in the socio-economic development of such artisanal fisheries within the legal structures of Nigeria at federal, State and local levels. The tension between different levels of statutory law and customary law can be considerable. While Nigeria adheres to a large body of international treaties and arrangements many are yet to be domiciled in order to facilitate the transition from vulnerability to viability (V2V). This was the March webinar of the V2V research platform on small-scale fisheries to which Mundus maris is a partner.

Did you know that sharks are killed worldwide in millions especially for their fins? Europe contributes a shocking 45% to the shark fin trade to Asian markets, both as a main exporter and as a trading hub for shark fins. But this is about to change. The EU Citizens Initiative @StopFinningEU collected over 1.1 million statements to support the establishment of a trade ban on shark fins in Europe! Now Europe has the chance to prove that they are taking their conservation obligations seriously.

The European Parliament held a much noticed hearing on the matter on 27 March 2023.

On Saturday March 4, 2023, the President of the Intergovernmental Conference on Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (IGC) tasked with elaborating an Agreement to protect the biodiversity of the high seas declared, “The ship has reached the shore”. After more than 15 years of discussions and negotiations, consensus on an Agreement to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in marine areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) has finally been reached.

The far-reaching agreement at COP15 in December 2022 which led to the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework is the successor of the Aichi targets under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The webinar on 10 March 2023 featured Mr. Basile van Havre, the Co-Chair for the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Open-Ended Working Group tasked with the development of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. The webinar was hosted hosted by the School of the Environment and the Sobey School of Business at Saint Mary’s University (Halifax, Canada) and the Community Conservation Research Network.

This talk by Andrea M. Collins of the University of Waterloo in Canada provided a high-level overview of the various tools and perspectives for undertaking gender-focused analysis in resource sectors such as small-scale fisheries. Drawing from gender studies, feminist political ecology, feminist political economy, and political science, this talk dispelled the idea that gender analysis means only focusing on women. It showed how understanding the many dimensions of gender roles and relations can improve the analysis of resource management and economic activity, expand our understanding of vulnerability and empowerment, and advance policy-relevant outcomes.