From ocean knowledge to blue citizenship for all: bottlenecks and way forward

To address the current and future challenges facing the ocean, there is a need to raise wider public attention to ocean sustainability and strengthen blue citizenship, addressing both marine and freshwater in an integrated perspective from source to sea. Recent years have seen more resources allocated to both formal and informal blue education initiatives. However, to date, there exists limited understanding and focused attention on identifying the enabling conditions of blue education initiatives that lead to measurable impact. These limitations refer mainly to the identification of bottlenecks and strategies for upscaling successful initiatives and mainstreaming the “blue” into the national education systems, so that every school, child, teenager and student (as citizens and future generation leaders) are reached.

This presentation assesses the state of play of blue education, building on a critical review of different blue education experiences globally, covering both the scientific and grey literature. This review highlights: (1) some of the success stories and diversity of blue education experiences in several regions across the globe (2) bottlenecks encountered by these experiences; (3) solutions or mechanisms that would help amplifying and mainstreaming blue education initiatives; (4) current knowledge gaps. Finally, this presentation gives recommendations for supporting effective integration of ‘blue’ into education initiatives and systems. It highlights also opportunities for future research and evaluation of blue education initiatives at all various scales.