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It's almost an epic battle. On the one hand Paolo Fanciulli in Talamone, better known as Paolo, the fisherman, on the one hand, and the trawlers of Porto di Santo Stefano near Orbetello in Italy's Tuscany region, with tacit consent of several local authorities, on the other. You're forgiven to think instinctively it's a battle between David and Goliath. In more than one way it is. Paolo is determined to save coastal ecosystems, deploys innovative means and ways and does not get scared into submission. The trawlers operating often illegally at night in the immediate proximity of the coast reserved for artisans seem to have all the advantages on their side.

Since the last century, role-playing games have been implemented as a methodology to stimulate awareness and participation of communities in various problem areas, thus facilitating the search for solutions to conflicts of interest between parties. Among these problems, the growing environmental conflicts currently arouse special interest, particularly among young people, but also among older groups. This method of conflict resolution allows us to develop our creative skills through an interactive dynamic between groups and people, simulating in an almost theatrical performance a situation of marked realism and importance, but in a safe space.

The July 2021 lecture of the V2V Research Project - From Vulnerability to Viability - casts a light on migration, with special attention to environmental migration. Michaela Hynie of the Department of Psychology of York University focuses on the nature of migration and consequences for communities left behind in six sites across three countries: India, Nepal and Canada.

Small-scale fisheries employ more than 90% of all men and women active in different parts of the value chain of around the globe. Some 40 million in the catching sector alone and many more in pre- and postharvest jobs. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that approximately half are women. The vast majority, about 85%, lives and works in Asia, 9% in Africa, 3% in Latin America and only 1% in Oceania, Europe and North America respectively (1).

This year's Conference of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) was convened entirely online from 5 to 8 July. Jointly organised together with the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) of the Erasmus University Rotterdam it offered numerous parallel sessions grouped as seed panels, harvesting panels, workshops and roundtables.

From 28 June to 2 July this year, the MARE Conference offered again a platform for exchange of latest research results, joint learning and networking. The key theme invited critical reflection on the fact that 'sustainable development' as guiding concept for policy makers, has been replaced of late by the ‘blue economy’ and ‘blue growth’ mantra. We say instead, focus on people - they can correct the dangerous directions some investments are taking at the expense of the wellbeing of people and planet.

The Galapagos Islands located some 1200 km west of continental Ecuador have not only captured the imagination of Charles Darwin during the circumglobal voyage of the Beagle in September 1835, but of countless scientists and tourists ever since; without forgetting the pirates, whalers and other seafarers depositing their letters in Whaler's Barrel Postbox on Floreana since the late 18th century. Whoever passed by would pick up any letters destined to close to home and would deliver them personally in exchange for a cup of tea - a habit kept alive by modern tourists. María José Barragán, current science director of the Charles Darwin Foundation in Puerto Ayora, takes us through the research station's development phases since its creation in 1959 and the ups and downs of its scientific and social work in support of the Galapagos National Park to study and protect its unique biodiversity. Click on the picture to see the registration of her talk.

Congratulations to this year's Mundus maris Awardees selected from 61 submissions from 10 countries by the international jury. The theme chosen by the UN for this year's World Ocean Day was "The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods". The theme allowed for a wide variety of vistas. We invited submissions in the form stories, poems, paintings and video divided into age groups to account for different life stages. Covid may have reduced the numbers of contributions, but certainly not the quality.

As World Ocean Day is coming closer, preparations of Mundus maris and its partners working on this year's UN theme "The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods" are heating up. The international jury is finishing its assessment work of 61 submissions from 10 countries. Our team in Senegal is planning no fewer than five activities! Nigeria two, Argentina in collaboration with others two and our teams in Belgium and Ghana one each. In Cameroon our partners Bénévoles Océan are mobilising young people in Kribi, Douala on the coast and elsewhere. Partner Eco Ethics in Kenya has already scheduled mangrove planting before and a series of beach and press activities at the day itself. 

The May 28 webinar of the V2V Project featured Dr Maarten Bavinck of Amsterdam University as keynote speaker. Starting out from his basis as a development sociologist and interested in governance, he spoke about nowadays common situations of legal plurality. The term describes a context where typically traditional laws and regulations apply to the same geographical space as modern positive law.

This year's UN motto for World Ocean Day "The Ocean: Life and Livelihoods" is particularly well-chosen as it reminds us that our lives and livelihoods are inextricably connected to the ocean. Human extractions and destruction of nature on land and in the seas are identified by many scientists and ordinary citizens as one of the major reasons why we are afflicted by more viral diseases. This is in addition to the fossil fuel addiction of how powerful companies have organised their businesses and framed our heating, cooling and mobility. This messes up the climate and generates more extreme events, such as hurricanes, droughts, inundations and harvesting losses.