Conclusion
Our analysis shows that changes are needed in the way we pursue more
sustainable ocean futures if we are to improve equitable outcomes. For
example, rights-based approaches to sharing access and resources will
need to be broadened to consider more fully who or what warrants rights
and how they will be achieved. These changes will include institutional
modification but will also need a progressive approach in developing
decision making processes and procedures to enable more equitable
outcomes, for example, active measures may be required to ensure
disenfranchised minority communities have a voice in these processes.
These changes will need to accommodate multiple moral and ethical world
views for relating to our oceans and the communities of concern.
In the context of the Future Seas project, we recognise that science and
knowledge production are immediate areas where we have agency and can
work to improve equity. This includes improvements in terms of building
capacity to understand and include equity issues and develop mechanisms
to be more inclusive and diverse. It necessitates a challenge to some
fundamental values, at every level (e.g. formal education, research
training, project design, metrics of success, resourcing, power
hierarchies). Only by challenging ourselves (and others) in ways that
feel uncomfortable can we start to create this positive change. As
members of the marine research community we commit to taking onboard
this responsibility within our own lives and our research
collaborations. More broadly this effort needs to be taken on by the
majority of researchers engaged in science and knowledge production, to
contribute to improving processes in terms of engaging with and
scrutinising concepts of, and relating to, equity. If such scrutiny
becomes common practise, then processes and outcomes of equity will
better reflect responsibility and inclusion of diversity in futures
ocean science and in our shared future sea for generations to come.