The Ocean Literacy Dialogues series is a global collaboration led by the Ocean Literacy With All (OLWA) Programme with the purpose of enabling knowledge exchange across different geographical and socio-cultural contexts, and to catalyze action in the Ocean Decade.
To help build capacity and behaviour change, towards realising an ocean literate society and to help ensure sustainable development, the third edition of the event will feature sessions on climate change; technology and media communications; equity, diversity and inclusion; and more, all in the context of ocean literacy and the Ocean Decade. The third edition will take place, as part of the Fifth International Marine Protected Areas Congress (IMPAC5), which also closely supports the importance of indigenous and local knowledge.
Travelling a little back in time
The most recent edition of the Ocean Literacy Dialogues which took place in Santos, Brazil, in October 2022, gathered governments, stakeholders, Early Career Ocean Professionals (ECOPs), the Brazilian National Decade Committee, teachers, local communities, surfers, all with the same goal: to bring mindfulness on the importance of ocean literacy and highlighting the fundamental role of the ocean in our lives.
Among many important and interesting initiatives, the public and the participants had the opportunity to hear from experts, exchange in roundtables, build strong relationships and networks, and participate in seminars or beach clean-ups. They could also join one of the great highlights of the event – the SDG Truck Initiative to learn about different projects in Brazil that are directly contributing to the 2030 Agenda and helping achieve the SDGs targets, including ocean sustainability.
Ocean Literacy dialogues highlights
The Brazilian National Decade Committee organized a special event gathering ECOPs from different locations in Brazil – most of them meeting in person for the first time, and who are now staying connected through the Ocean Decade Network, to continue exchanging and to scale up the ideas and plans of action they developed in Santos. The Brazilian Committee also had the opportunity to reshare the Call to Action of the Ocean Decade Alliance to partners, with the purpose of co-creating innovative, tailored and adaptive approaches to sustainable and inclusive investment around common ocean science priorities, which first launched in the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon.
Francesca Santoro, IOC/UNESCO Ocean Literacy Senior Programme Officer and Coordinator of the OLWA Programme, and Oskar Metsavaht, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, held a special roundtable and discussed how the fashion industry can develop ocean action projects through ocean-friendly and ethical clothing, and the impact and importance of sustainable fashion in the Ocean Decade. The discussions highlighted the example of the IOC/UNESCO partnership with Prada Group in supporting ocean literacy, and the importance of the private sector in creating new communication platforms and audiences to spread the word and reach wider communities.
The surfing community got together in the “Surf is life: Surfing and Ocean Literacy for environmental citizenship” event, where the audience could also take part in an inspiring discussion on the role of surfing in the sustainable management of the ocean. The event was held in the presence of the UNESCO Champion for the Ocean and Youth, and giant wave surfer, Maya Gabeira.
A special in-person communications workshop, “Winning Hearts and Minds: Communicating Ocean Literacy in the Ocean Decade” held during the Dialogues hadwith the goal of helping stakeholders in society to overcome ocean literacy gaps, benefiting from the participation of endorsed Ocean Decade Actions.
Many of the Ocean Literacy Dialogues sessions are available to watch on the UNESCO YouTube channel.
The Boticário Group Foundation closed this edition of the super series with an engaging public event at the beach in Santos: calling all generations to join the Ocean Decade global movement!
Join us in Canada
The ocean literacy community is in Vancouver for the third edition of the Dialogues, to brainstorm on how to co-design and co-deliver new initiatives to inform, transform and create new agents of action, for a better and more equal generation ocean society to help foster understanding of the influence the ocean has on us – and the influence we have on the ocean.
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