Just in time to accelerate the UN Ocean Decade, the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO (IOC UNESCO) have decided to pool their forces for ocean literacy.
IOC-UNESCO thus comes on board to boost the DG MARE EU4Ocean ocean literacy initiative, which is coordinated by…our very own ACTeon team! We are excited to open this new EU4Ocean chapter and if there is one thing, we have learned so far is that we do need to unite existing efforts: we need all to work together for the ocean we need and for the future we want.
Specifically, this cooperation will support the EU4Ocean activities in the next 3 years by:
- promoting and facilitating the uptake of the ocean literacy,
- enhancing their impact and visibility,
- expanding the outreach of the EU4Ocean Coalition,
- empowering society at large to take actions via collective EU4Ocean initiatives and campaigns
The EU4Ocean initiative is moreover now officially part of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). As one of the seven Ocean Decade Outcomes and one of the ten Ocean Decade Challenges, ocean literacy plays a key role in the Ocean Decade Implementation Plan to rally the international community. In this pursuit, the cooperation – kicking off on February 1st, 2022 – will support the work of the 3 EU4Ocean communities:
- EU4Ocean Platform (connecting organisations, civil society actors and projects)
- Youth4Ocean Forum (mobilising 16 to 30-year-old change-makers)
- Network of European Blue Schools(mobilising primary, secondary, vocational and technical schools that embed ocean literacy principles in school curricula).
The cherry on top? The project will also facilitate access to the UNESCO networks, in particular those related to marine science, sustainability, climate change and education in general.
