On June 29, from 18:00 to 20:00, the European Coalition for Ocean Literacy, EU4Ocean, and IOC-UNESCO invite the ocean literacy institutions and networks from all regions in the globe to the "Ocean Literacy Dialogues"side event for an open dialogue to align strategies and reinforce synergies to scale up cooperation for the remaining years of the Decade of Ocean Sciences for Sustainable Development, where ocean literacy also features. The event will take place at the Pavillion of Knowledge.

Register here!

Ocean Literacy is a fundamental pillar of the Ocean Decade, which in itself can be considered an unprecedented worldwide ocean literacy initiative. The ocean has never been so high on the political agenda, but if we want to capitalize on this awareness and make the best use of such opportunities as the UN Ocean Conference to transform our relationship with the ocean, namely to include the ocean in the education curriculum frameworks around the world and to include the ocean in financial and economic debates, we need to have a common understanding of the issues at stake and be able to transform ocean knowledge into action and act collectively.

The Ocean Literacy Dialogues, starting in Lisbon at the UN Ocean Conference, will be a series of open participative events to take stock of the development of ocean literacy across the world through an inclusive and holistic approach, with the aim to provide concrete opportunities for new joint actions to re-imagine humanity’s relationship with the ocean.

This first session will be organized by EU4Ocean Coalition, the European coalition on ocean literacy, through its collaboration with IOC-UNESCO and the participation of the different institutions and networks from other continents and regions of the world participating in the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC). It is going to be the beginning of a process to investigate the commitments that can be brought together to support ocean literacy across the globe and that will culminate at the next session of UNOC. The overarching objective is to include ocean literacy in the next iteration of the high-level dialogues.

This dialogue will be widened beyond the community of ocean literacy to include different cultures and sectors of the society, to achieve the objectives of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030). Decision-makers, journalists, entrepreneurs, educators, artists, and youth should be engaged and share their values and how ocean literacy impacts their fields of activity.

Ocean literacy, defined as our understanding of the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean, is related to all areas of human activity relevant to the sustainable development of our society. Therefore, the proposed side event aligns the most with topic 8 of the thematic interactive dialogues of the UNOC: “Leveraging interlinkages between Sustainable Development Goal 14 and other Goals towards the implementation of the 2030 Agenda”.

The subscribing entities will take stock of the results of the Ocean Literacy Dialogues and will commit to organizing other events and initiatives during the next three years, using the Ocean Literacy with All of the Ocean Decade, the IOC-UNESCO, and the EU4Ocean as facilitating platforms to coordinate and steer them. The results will be regularly communicated, and all the entities commit to using their networks and constituencies to include these results in the most appropriate form leading up to the next UN Ocean Conference.

Download the Agenda of the day.

Among the organising partners are:

• EU4Ocean Coalition of DG MARE;
• IOC-UNESCO;
• Portuguese Ministry of the Economy and the Sea, Portugal;
• NMEA- National Marine Educators Association, US;
• COLC-Canadian Ocean Literacy Coalition, Canada;
• EMSEA-European Marine Science Educators Association, Europe;
• RELATO - Latin America Education Network for the Ocean;
• AMEA - Asia Marine Educators Association;
• Australian Association for Environmental Education;
• International Pacific Marine Educators Network;
• All-Atlantic Blue Schools Network; Atlantic Basin (Galway and Belém areas);
• GOSE - Global Ocean Science Education, US;
• EuroGOOS;
• Escola Azul, DGPM and EMEPC, Portuguese Ministry of the Economy and the Sea, Portugal;
• Acteon, France;
• Ciência Viva - ANCCT, Portugal;
• College of Exploration, US;
• Maré de Ciência, UNIFESP, Brazil;
• Planeta Océano Acqua Mater, Brazil;
• Nausicaa, France;
• Oceano Azul Foundation, Portugal;
• Aires Marines Educatives, OFB, France.