Sustainable Oceans Programme

Description

The world's largest ecosystem, the ocean, is experiencing significant decline due to collective mismanagement and climate change effects. This deterioration poses grave threats to human survival, encompassing food security, health, fisheries preservation, environmental regulation, and economic expansion.

While many marine species are critically depleted, there have been relatively few extinctions thus far. However, this may soon alter. Overexploitation of marine resources, adverse climate change effects on the oceans, and additional human impacts on marine habitats signify that the opportunity to rectify the course is dwindling.

A crucial juncture is at hand: the system is not entirely in uncontrollable decay, and restoration remains feasible. The forthcoming years will be pivotal in discovering solutions for the multitude of problems confronting the oceans.

An immense challenge lies in the fact that governance is antiquated, predominantly sectoral, fragmented, and not uniformly governed by conventions. This hampers integrated management of human activities and marine biodiversity conservation, along with the ecosystem services they provide. Transitioning the oceans from decline to recovery is a vastly complex issue, involving numerous intersecting elements, including socioeconomic drivers, climate change, geopolitical and legal issues, and policy and enforcement shortcomings.

The central research question for this project is: 'How can the oceans be managed optimally?'

This project employs a multidisciplinary approach to instigate breakthroughs in global ocean management, leveraging new technologies such as Earth observation, deep-submergence vehicles, computer modelling advancements and machine learning. These methods are utilised to bridge knowledge gaps and devise new marine management strategies, human activity surveillance, and regulatory enforcement.

A key part of the project aims to overcome obstacles in sustainable ocean management, addressing crucial areas such as fisheries management, seabed extraction, biodiversity and ecosystem services mapping and protection, technological solutions for regulatory enforcement, and necessary governance and legal framework amendments for effective regulation, especially in areas beyond national jurisdiction. This work will contribute to discussions surrounding a new implementation agreement for the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, expected to extend beyond 2017 and 2018.

This five-year project seeks to direct marine resource management towards sustainable and economically beneficial exploitation while maintaining biodiversity and associated ecosystem services for future generations.

The Oxford Martin Programme on Sustainable Oceans is well-positioned to aid in rectifying humanity's relationship with the oceans by developing novel management tools and providing policymakers with the knowledge necessary for improved ocean governance.

Offers funding

No, this infrastructure does not provide funding.

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University of Oxford
Oxford

University of Oxford
Oxford