Protecting Blue Horizons - A role play to make an MPA work

Currently 17% and 10% of the world’s terrestrial and marine areas respectively are under protection. A major target of the EU Marine Biodiversity Strategy is to place 30% of the terrestrial and marine spaces under more protection by 2030, 10% of its marine waters under strict protection. This is a challenge as many existing ones are ‘paper parks’. To protect us all will requires large efforts across social groups in all societies. In a role play you put yourself in the shoes of somebody else. Each participant impersonates a different character involved, like a MPA manager, fisher, windfarm owner, tourism manager and others., They are all stakeholders or rights holders and are more or less enthusiastic about the demanded effort to make a Marine Protected Area (MPA) work. The role play is a moment to confront different views and seek as much consensus as possible without loosing the goal out of sight. The deliberation will be facilitated by a moderator and each participant receives beforehand a short description of the character he or she will impersonate. These are based in interviews and literature research of personalities in these roles. The aim of the role play is to engage all participants in the exercise, provide the opportunity for everyone to talk and listen to the voice of everyone else in the conversation. Additionally, the experience should stimulate curiosity for future more in-depth study and engagement seeking solutions. A role play can provide positive outcomes because it encourages listening practices, cooperation, negotiation and it helps to stimulate empathy. During the role play it is important to create a safe environment for the conversation and require a respectful and positive attitude from everyone. If time is insufficient, it is ok to agree to disagree. It is important to allocate sufficient time after the end of the allocated time to a debriefing, where participants can reflect critically about the dynamic of the conversation, how they felt, whether they are happy with the process or not, and what they identify as reasons that may invite follow-up. The greatest learning effects and insights are expected to arise during the debriefing. In times of ubiquitous social media, listening and dialogue practice is important to kindle more interest in biodiversity protection, encourage engagement, and confer a sense of agency. NB we are in touch with UNESCO Ocean Literacy and are interested in developing support tools for moderators (e.g. school teachers and others interested) pilots have been done in Germany, Argentina and Nigeria. We offer the materials and facilitation to interested schools, companies or municipalities. We will digest feedback and produce successive versions based on feedback as required. There is currently no specific roll out organised in EU countries. Help from the Mission to identify schools or other groups interested in playing would be appreciated.