The Ocean Equity Index : the first tool to assess and strengthen equity in ocean governance

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the United Nations Agreement on the High Seas (BBNJ) and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) have demonstrated strong commitment by governments and international organisations in recent years to social and environmental equity in ocean-related projects and decisions. However, progress is significantly hampered by a lack of clarity on how to define, measure, and monitor equity.

To address this challenge, an Ocean Equity Index (OEI) has recently been developed by CNRS scientists1  within an international research team, with support from the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB)2 . The OEI is the first global tool for measuring, comparing, and promoting equity in ocean-related initiatives, projects, and policies; it transforms an often abstract concept into a measurable and actionable standard. Marine protected areas, development programmes, and even entire economic sectors can be analysed and compared to promote initiatives and decisions that benefit coastal communities and marine ecosystems. It also helps identify gaps in rights recognition, participation, and benefit sharing. The Ocean Equity Index is described in an article to be published on January 28 in Nature.

Free and easy to use, this assessment tool is designed to be accessible to a wide range of stakeholders: local communities, Indigenous peoples, NGOs, scientists, industries, and governments. Available online via a dedicated website3  and offline through a calculation and visualisation form included in the publication, it assigns a score (from 0 to 3) to 12 criteria for each initiative analysed; the total score is expressed as a percentage of the maximum possible score.

Scientists are calling on governments and international organisations to quickly make use of this tool, as the benefits of ocean industries (aquaculture, maritime transport, offshore energy, etc.) are mostly concentrated in the hands of a few, main players4  at the expense of local populations and marginalised groups (Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and small-scale fishers) who also suffer the negative consequences of the exploitation of ocean resources.

• 1Working at the Centre de recherche insulaire et observatoire de l'environnement (CNRS/École Pratique des Hautes Études - Université PSL/Université de Perpignan Via Domitia).
• 2Co-funding, hosting and support for the BlueJustice research team through the FRB's Centre de synthèse et d’analyse de données sur la biodiversité (Cesab).
• 3https://oceanequityindex.org/
• 4 Transnational corporations in the ocean economy. » J. Virdin, T. Vegh, J.-B. Jouffray, R. Blasiak, S. Mason, H. Österblom, D. Vermeer, H. Wachtmeister et N. Werner. Science Advances, 13 January 2021.