Project Report
The Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas are undergoing profound transformations from anthropogenic pressures from climatic changes that challenge its ice cover to new forms of economic activity such as deep-sea mining. With its important role in climatic processes and the global food chain, there are growing questions of justice from Indigenous use of marine spaces and reliance on the oceans for food security to the ecological challenges presented by new resource exploitation and the policies underpinning these practices.
Ocean governance has a long history that is rooted in the evolving relationship between human communities, resource needs and technological capabilities. Once thought as a commons within defined limitations, ocean spaces are subdivided across state territories, with privileges of resource exploitation and responsibility for transboundary challenges (e.g., plastics pollution or sustainable harvesting) incompatible within contemporary challenges. This includes among them, states’ needs for security of resource supply, common concerns for biodiversity protection and also for Indigenous rights.
While interests in blue governance and blue economy in the Arctic have been visible in the discourse landscape for several years, this is rarely connect to concerns of justice. By focusing on a justice that is ‘blue’, we sought to highlight an area of critical concern that gives priority to the transcendence of maritime activities, transboundary issues (i.e. climate change, plastics pollution), human impacts, and non-human aspects of oceanic existence. In this regard, concepts and theories for “blue” and “ocean” justice can promote evaluations of effectiveness of existing legal regimes and governance mechanisms and identify gaps relevant to environmental challenges and protection or conservation measures. Blue justice can also extend to human rights issues, such as protection for fishers or search and rescue volunteers, and importantly can take into account core issues and concerns for Indigenous communities whose cultural survival is uniquely integrated into the use of ocean spaces, ice and living resources of the sea. Ocean justice can also evoke accounts of non-hierarchical, non-exploitative, more-than-human aspects and deep entanglement with the web of life that sustains and exists at sea. In this context, this workshop focuses on issues of Blue and Ocean justice together with particular emphasis on the Arctic.
The objectives of this focus was to:
- To connect a group of experts to push the boundaries of knowledge about Blue Ocean Justice in the Arctic toward future collaborations.
- To create a common understanding of the intersection of Arctic environmental and governance challenges, research and the implications for humans and non-humans in Arctic and oceanic spaces within a framework of justice theory and concepts.
- To reflect how justice theories and concepts can inform and transform future pathways.
- To promote deeper understanding on use of ocean spaces (e.g., deep-sea mining, fisheries), transboundary challenges (e.g., pollution, ice melt) and ocean governance concerns (e.g., biodiversity, maritime SAR) which to date remains limited in Arctic studies.
Highlights
- Highlight 1: Roundtable Discussion Panel including Professors J. Samual Barkins and Hansen Hansen-Magnusson, Dr Tanja Joona and Dr Corine Wood-Donnelly discussed how theories and concepts of International Relations intersect with ideas of blue justice, exploring what those dimensions can look like and moved towards framing research agenda that asks critical questions about the relationships between states, the oceans, legitimacy and responsibility.
- Highlight 2: Multi-day and multi-disciplinary workshop, coordinated by Corine Wood-Donnelly and Romain Chuffart. Participants included: Judy Boyd, Carolijn van Noort, Rachael Lorna Johnstone, Eduard Ariza, Ellie Rose Ward, Johanna Bürkert, Kamrul Hossain, Noor Jahan Punam, and Katharina Heinrich. The group worked together on developing a knowledge map of the topic and discssing the implications for justice. Plans are in progress for an edited volume and joint scoping article.
- Highlight 3: Two research proposals have also been submitted, including a research collaboration proposal with Ránnis. Both of these focus on justice issues emerging from geoengineering in ocean spaces.
Date and Location:
1) 29 August 2024: Discussion Panel: Navigating Blue Justice: Intersections with International Relations
2) 26-27 September 2024: Multi-disciplinary workshop in collaboration with the Nansen Professorship, University of Akureyri.
IASC Working Groups funding the Project:
Project Lead
Corine Wood-Donnelly, Nord University, Norway
Year funded by IASC
2024
Project Status
Completed