The Brazilian case-study has published the report Small-scale fisheries and coastal-marine conflicts in São Paulo, that presents the results of a broad participatory assessment of conflicts involving small-scale fishing communities of the São Paulo coastline, southeastern Brazil. The conflicts were assessed through an online survey and participatory workshops engaging stakeholders.

The online survey had the goal of assessing the cases of conflicts and the workshops aimed to validate and complement the conflicts surveyed, as well as to establish a ranking of the most important conflicts by different stakeholders. A total of 132 conflicts were systematized into 12 categories and the most relevant were: legislation and surveillance; large-scale enterprises in coastal areas, pollution, fishing regulation and fisheries management and planning. The prioritization of conflicts was important to guide the definition of the Brazilian case study based on local demands, but also to highlight the main conflicts faced by the small-scale fishing sector and to provide information to subsidize the discussions and actions around these conflicts. More than one hundred people were involved in the process, including fishers, community leaders, government representatives, researchers and other civil society organizations.

The report was published in Portuguese, as it aims to engage and disseminate the results of the assessment to the stakeholders. The Brazilian team will also communicate the results in different spaces and formats, presenting this report in marine protected areas councils, in local media, community-based organizations and building policy briefs for decision-makers.

Knowledge products

The Norwegian team held their second dialogue forum meeting on February 15, 2022. This “Barents Sea Forum” includes representatives from state, market and civil society organizations, with members from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, Seafood Norway, Petro Arctic, Equinor, the Norwegian Coastal Fishermen’s Association, the Norwegian Fishermen’s Association and Friends of the Earth Norway.

The meeting started with a summary and status of the OCEAN PACT project. After that, we discussed the development of offshore wind power and offshore aquaculture in Norway’s marine and coastal waters and the associated governance frameworks and patterns of conflict. The participants also gave their feedback on the project team's plan for data collection.

Furthermore, we discussed the potential of marine spatial planning to prevent or mitigate conflict. The Norwegian government has recently announced that it wants to extend the well-established system of land-based planning to cover the entire 200 nautical miles Exclusive Economic Zone. However, what this will mean in practice remains an open question.

Finally, based on a presentation prepared for the 2022 Ocean Sciences Meeting, there was a discussion about how marine conflicts can play a productive role and contribute to greater sustainability.

On September 29, the OCEANS PACT team organised the first overarching dialogue forum. The main focus of the meeting was to connect forum members and the research teams. Another purpose of the dialogue forum was to provide advice on the framing, implementation and institutionalisation of the OCEANS PACT research. 

Dialogue Forum members are drawn from a number of international bodies and organisations that are influential in efforts to better understand and enable ocean sustainability, including

• Future Earth’s applied research networks IMBER and Future Earth Coasts, and Ocean Knowledge Action Network
• IUCN
• Ocean Conservancy
• The Ocean Foundation
• Wildlife Conservation Society
• World Ocean Council

Also included are internationally recognised scholars who specialise in various aspects of ocean law and governance, environmental dispute resolution, and global ocean sustainability and conflict transformation.

During the meeting, the six cases studies were presented, as well as an overview of the project conceptualisation and milestones and a comparative analysis.  

Each presentation summarised the case study context, key issues in contention, the stakeholders involved, and research findings to date.

Next steps will include exploring ways to involve Dialogue Forum members in shaping the direction of the overall research project, involvement in relevant case studies, and to identifying practical ways to share learning from the research, and where possible institutionalise this learning in organisations involved in efforts to transform ocean conflict.

The presentations can be found under each case study on the page Marine conflict cases.

At the 2021 MARE People and the Sea Conference, OCEANS PACT organised the session Blue conflicts and pathways to sustainability.

The session included eleven paper presentations, related discussions and audience engagement and was associated with Belmont Forum’s ongoing collaborative research action on ocean sustainability.

Ocean Conflicts – Insights from the MARE Session, Blue conflicts and pathways to sustainability