In climate change talks and development goals, the tropical majority must be recognized and respected
Published on July 28, 2023 on the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries’ website
Written by Solana Pasqual
The tropical majority can be a powerful addition to climate change mitigation — current global policy must reflect that
The ocean sustains life and livelihood for millions around the world, and yet, with the majority of people living in low to middle-income countries in the tropics — nicknamed the “tropical majority” — ocean governance agendas have largely been set by temperate zone high-income countries using their knowledge, funding, and institutional power.
In a new article published in NPJ Ocean Sustainability, a diverse group of marine scientists, policy analysts and ocean experts with deep links to the tropics are calling on decision-makers to change these top-down policy decisions that are having a negligible or negative impact on the tropical majority. This group is encouraging international equity, justice, diversity and inclusion goals to give decision-makers opportunities to develop locally relevant responses to environmental crises affecting people and the ocean. Tropical nations and territories must be able to design and lead their own responses to marine issues arising from global warming and biodiversity loss, while also holding high-income nations accountable for their role in the climate crisis.
“So, a lot of the research that it’s done these days, it’s Western, global North type of research, which basically translate to the scientific method,” said Juliano Palacios Abrantes, co-author of the study and a postdoctoral fellow in the Changing Oceans Research Unit at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries. “The problem here is that, in a lot of cases, the scientific method ignores any other type of approaches to knowledge.”
Abrantes and his colleagues drew together diverse perspectives from the tropics to propose four actions to bring transformational change to the way science is defined and done: centring equity in ocean governance; reconnecting people and the ocean; redefining ocean literacy; and decolonizing ocean research.
“When you’re dealing with socio-ecological systems, or systems that are intrinsically connected in terms of society and nature,” said Palacios-Abrantes. “The scientific method alone will not necessarily be enough to understand or address the issue in question.”
The tropics — the regions around the equator — are home to the greatest global biodiversity and also the greatest number of directly ocean-dependent people. Many people in this tropical majority are linked to the ocean through culture and livelihood, making them experts in identifying and addressing accelerating threats to marine ecosystems while also understanding the limiting effects of systemic inequities in governance systems.
Despite the tropical majority being invaluable to climate change response and resilience efforts, most governance institutions and approaches neglect them, often opting for one-size-fits-all solutions. These governing bodies also often come from high-income countries with previous colonial histories with these lower-income tropics, creating a scientific environment that overlooks critical factors of culture, race, ethnicity, poverty inequality, and institutional capacity. The four calls to action outline the major themes of these current power dynamics.
“We’re talking about communities that have been in the same place for decades or even centuries, or more, and have had a balanced relationship with nature,” said Palacios-Abrantes. “We need Indigenous and local knowledge to provide context and contribute to problem-solving solutions. This is why we want equity at the centre of governance, empowering Indigenous and community-based conversation efforts.”
There is currently an exclusion of non-scientific forms of knowledge which is often exacerbated by academic programs privileging Western scientific knowledge while also gatekeeping local knowledge-holders from decision-making processes. As a result, local populations — even if they have maintained historical relationships with the ocean — are all but removed from the dominant models of governance and knowledge that will shape their future.
There is a mismatch between cause and effect; the tropics often have very low carbon footprints domestically and internationally while being adversely impacted by high-income countries continuing to take fishery resources and increase their demands for energy, minerals, and genetic resources. The global tropics must be seen as leaders in climate change mitigation and appreciated for their knowledge and capabilities in maintaining thriving ocean societies and ecosystems, rather than victims incapable of producing their own knowledge and action. The global ocean governance community must act now in support of the tropical majority.
“We want to move away from the ‘white saviour’ complex and this idea that privileged people have a divine responsibility to help people in developing countries,” said Palacios-Abrantes. “But we [the tropical majority], we do have the capacity, we have power, we have intelligent people, and we have the techniques. What we don’t have is equal opportunities.”
There must be resistance to and reversal of, large-scale coastal privatization and degradation from private companies and governments. There must be mutually beneficial people-ocean relationships using conventional and alternative property rights structures for coastal communities to enhance local stewardship. Along with these, there must be a recognition of the practical wisdom and knowledge that local and Indigenous peoples possess, which are also compatible with Western science. This can only be done by developing initiatives that ensure scientific research programs integrate local capacity while building equitable partnerships and opportunities.
Engaging the tropical majority to make ocean governance and science more equitable and effective was published in NPJ Ocean Sustainability
