Abstract
The ocean provides important ecosystem services to society, but its health is in crisis due to the impacts of human activities. Ocean sustainability requires ambitious levels of scientific evidence to support governance and management of human activities that impact the ocean. However, due to the size, complexity and connectivity of the ocean, monitoring and data collection presupposes high investments, and nations need to cooperate to deliver the ambitious, costly science that is required to inform decisions. Here, we highlight the role that ocean science diplomacy plays in facilitating the science needed to support ocean governance and management from domestic, regional to international scales in the Atlantic region via the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance. This Alliance is supported by the Galway Statement (2013), the South–South Framework for Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the South and Tropical Atlantic and the Southern Oceans (2017), and the Belém Statement (2017). We discuss the national and international interests that drove the processes of negotiating these agreements, as well as their challenges to date. We also discuss the potential future of the All Atlantic Alliance, as well as its significance in emerging global initiatives such as the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021–2030).
Highlights
The ocean is essential to human life
To highlight the important role that ocean science diplomacy has on scientific collaboration and international agreements, this paper examines the case of ocean science diplomacy in the Atlantic
Upon the establishment of the South–South Framework, the European Commission, Brazil and South Africa organized a series of seminars to propose a new instrument to establish the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance
Summary
The ocean is essential to human life. It regulates our climate by storing carbon and heat (Cheng et al, 2020), produces half of our oxygen (Körtzinger et al, 2004), provides food for billions of people (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2020), as well as alternative sources of energy (Pelc and Fujita, 2002). Upon the establishment of the South–South Framework, the European Commission, Brazil and South Africa organized a series of seminars to propose a new instrument to establish the All Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance STI priority areas Ocean observation (including seabed mapping), forecasting and monitoring processes and systems Ocean health, including pollutants Sustainable management of the resources Data sharing and interoperability Seabed and benthic habitat mapping Ocean Literacy Climate Variability and Change Ecosystem Variability and Controlling Processes Nonliving resources Biodiversity Food security, fisheries management & aquaculture Oceans technology (including for observation and renewable marine energy) Polar research (especially interconnections between the Atlantic, the Southern Ocean and Antarctica) Earth system model Inter-ocean exchanges and large scale circulation Air-sea exchanges and storage Paleo evolution Biological production and biogeochemistry Continent-Shelf-Ocean continuum Surface Ocean-Deep Ocean links Marine biotechnology Cross-cutting areas Researcher mobility Public–private partnerships Human capital development Sharing of research infrastructures. It will be interesting to follow how impactful this Alliance will be in the future
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