Demystifying Ocean Literacy
- batepapocomnetuno
- 21 de ago.
- 4 min de leitura
By Mari Andrade and Jana del Favero
English edit by Carla Elliff
Knowing and understanding the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean: this is the essence of Ocean Literacy. Here in Brazil, we call this “Cultura Oceânica”, which translates more directly as “ocean culture” - we’ll explain more about this translation in a moment. It may seem like a strange combination of words at first, but culture and the ocean are closely related. Ocean Literacy is about engaging people to reconnect with the ocean, in a relationship based on quality knowledge, accessibility, ecosystem and cultural diversity, and behavior change.
Where did this all come from?
The desire to gather elements to support this aspiration for reconnection began in 2002, when education professionals and marine scientists came together in the US to develop pedagogical resources for teaching marine sciences.
Education professionals identified this gap in teaching and managed to mobilize research institutes to address this demand at conferences and technical meetings between 2003 and 2004. This was an important step in identifying the need to bring "the next generation of scientists, fishers, farmers, businesspeople, and political leaders" closer to the sea. In other words, the discussion of humanity's relationship with the ocean had enormous potential and, therefore, needed to overcome the waves and navigate other seas, with a diversity of stakeholders. This is how the term Ocean Literacy emerged, and in 2004 itself, there was an effort to define its fundamental principles and concepts, which then began to be addressed at conferences every two years in the US.
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A few years later, Ocean Literacy crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Europe, joining the discussions on education and scientific outreach taking place there. Since 2011, projects, events, and international cooperation agreements have begun to consider Ocean Literacy as a crucial topic in Marine Sciences.
The urgency to address it has made Ocean Literacy an intergovernmental issue. Thus, UNESCO and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission have taken on the responsibility of stimulating this global discussion and developing tools for its implementation. With the launch of the 2030 Agenda in 2015 and the announcement of the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development in 2017, the challenge of incorporating this concept here in Brazil has been taken on.
Ocean Literacy in Brazilian seas
The first task we had here was to translate the term Ocean Literacy. Literacy is an English term that emerged in the 19th century to define the "ability to read and write." Since then, it has been used as "competence or knowledge in a certain area" or "alphabetization".
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This term exists in Portuguese, as the word literacia, and has more or less the same meaning. In Portuguese from Portugal, speaking of literacy is more common than in Brazil. In Brazilian Portuguese, the term can convey the idea that we need to be "literate," experts in the subject. But this contradicts the purpose of reconnecting people with the ocean, which is meant to be democratic and free for everyone.
So we went through literacia do oceano, literacia azul, educação marinha, alfabetização dos mares, and other variations of the term in Brazilian Portuguese. It wasn't until 2019 that the term Cultura Oceânica (“Ocean Culture”) was adopted, when a Portuguese version of the IOC-UNESCO Ocean Literacy for All toolkit was released. This provided much of the inspiration for this text, at an event organized by the Maré de Ciência (Tide of Science) project.
Culture is a complex term, with many dimensions and meanings. But in every way, it brings a sense of connection and responsibility that are important and meaningful to Brazil.
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What is ocean literacy about?
But how do we connect people with the ocean? What can we talk about? Where should we begin? All the discussions over the past few years have provided some fundamental principles, which are basic topics described in the toolkit as starting points for marine conversations. They are:
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Earth has a global and very diverse Ocean.
The Ocean and marine life play a strong role in Earth's dynamics.
The Ocean exerts a significant influence on climate.
The Ocean makes Earth habitable.
The Ocean supports an immense diversity of life and ecosystems.
The Ocean and humanity are strongly interconnected.
There is much to discover and explore in the Ocean.
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The toolkit provides innovative tools, methods, and resources to help educators and learners around the world understand these complex ocean processes and functions, and to raise awareness of the most pressing issues within the topic. While these principles are the result of recent research in ocean science, for communication and connection to occur, it is crucial that other types of knowledge be incorporated, fostering opportunities to recognize regionalities and people, which are so diverse here in Brazil.
Ocean literacy helps us situate society in its current relationship with the sea and guide it toward treating the ocean with respect in the present to ensure the same opportunities for future generations. It's high time the ocean was part of our conversations, right?
About the guest author: Mari Andrade
Mariana researches and communicates participatory processes for ocean conservation. She is a member of the National Governance Committee, an All-Atlantic Youth Ambassador in Brazil (@queridoatlantico / @AllAtlanticYouth) and co-founder of @bloom.ocean: an agency for change for people, projects, and businesses connected to the ocean. She is also a researchers for the São Paulo Strategic Plan for Monitoring and Assessment of Marine Litter, contributes to the Marine Science Entrepreneurship Working Group (@gtecienciasdomar) and is an advisor to the Women’s League for the Ocean (@ligadasmulherespelosoceanos).
This text is based on a series of posts about Ocean Literacy that Mariana wrote for @queridoatlantico.
#OceanDecade #UN #SustainableDevelopment #MCTI #UNESCO #IOC #JanaDelFaveroChat #GuestAuthors #DemystifyingNeptune
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