Overview: This free dive session will first introduce a new People and the Oceans Specialist Group that was recently created within the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. We will then seek your ideas and feedback for partners and priority activities that the People and Oceans Specialist Group might pursue in the coming years to help integrate the voices, visions, rights, and livelihood needs of coastal peoples and island nations into policies and practices related to the conservation and management of the oceans.Initiator: Nathan Bennett, Chair of the People and Oceans Specialist Group, IUCN
Background:Indigenous people, coastal communities, small-scale fishers and island nations are intimately connected to, depend on and claim resources and territories in much of the world’s oceans and coastal environment. The central objective of the newly created People and the Ocean SG is to promote the need to understand and integrate the voices, visions, rights, and livelihood needs of coastal peoples and island nations into policies and practices related to the conservation and management of the oceans. The group brings a marine focus to the work of the Commission on Ecological, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In particular, this marine-focused specialist group cuts across the Themes of CEESP, such as the Governance, Equity and Rights, Human Well-being and Livelihoods, Gender, Indigenous People’s, and Business, Best Practice and Accountability Thematic Groups. The work of the People and the Oceans Specialist Group also connects to the various marine programs situated within the IUCN, including the Marine and Polar Program and the Marine Theme of the World Commission on Protected area, and liaises with IUCN member organizations that are engaged in ocean conservation, management and development issues.
Link: https://www.iucn.org/commissions/commission-environmental-economic-and-social-policy/our-work/people-and-ocean
