Our top 5 highlights in 2025

UN Ocean Conference III, Nice, France

Here are the top 5 highlights in our journey throughout 2025:

• Mainstreaming ocean justice in the blue economy

  
  

As part of our on-going collaboration with Lancaster University we co-organised a series of nine workshops in Bitung, Jakarta, and Kupang in July 2025 with small-scale fishers, women, children, and young people to co-produce alternative knowledge of ocean justice in relation to the blue economy. The workshops were held as part of the ‘Ocean Justice and the Blue Economy’, a collaborative research project working to foster a fair and just blue economy led by the School of Global Affairs, Lancaster University (UK). The research strives to investigate how ocean justice is understood by coastal communities in Indonesia, Scotland, and Seychelles. Read more here.

• Strengthening partnership for equitable ocean decision-making at UN Ocean Conference III

  
  

In June 2025, at the third United Nations Ocean Conference in Nice, France our team partnered with governments (e.g. Government of Indonesia & Government of Fiji), research and civil society organisations (e.g. Lancaster University (UK) & Peace Boat (US)), and international organisations (e.g. UN Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea & Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of UNESCO) to mainstream coastal community voices in ocean governance.

Together with partners we co-organised a series of three side-events that sent a strong key message on the urgent need to strengthen the capacity of coastal communities including young people to access marine science, including marine social sciences, and to actively participate in blue economy and ocean-climate-biodiversity governance. Read more here, here, here, and here.

• Advancing sustainable small-scale fisheries

  
  

Small-scale fisheries sector in Indonesia drives the local and national economy, providing food, nutrition, and income to coastal communities. Working with local and national partners we have mapped small-scale fishers’ perception of risks in Indonesia’s cross-border region of North Maluku. Summary of the key findings from our research has been published in Marine Policy journal. Key points and recommendations from our paper are outlined in this blog post.

In August 2025, we also provided inputs to the development of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)’s second edition of A policy and legal diagnostic toolbox for sustainable small-scale fisheries. The diagnostic toolbox is developed in support of the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication.

• Promoting inclusive maritime security governance in Southeast Asia

  
  

We partnered with Yokosuka Council for Asia Pacific Studies (Japan) to co-organize ‘Ocean dependent communities in Southeast Asia’s Maritime Security Governance: Reflections and Actionable Pathways’ workshop on 8-9 February 2025, in Makassar, Indonesia. Bringing together stakeholders from Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the workshop assessed in a more rigorous manner the implications of involving marginalized stakeholders including women, Indigenous Peoples, and youth in ocean governance. A report of the workshop is available here. Read more here and here.

• Co-authoring the third United Nations World Ocean Assessment

  
  

The third World Ocean Assessment (WOA III) is the only global integrated assessment of the world’s ocean covering environmental, economic and social aspects. The assessment aims to provide scientific information on the state of the marine environment to support decisions and actions for the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals, in particular goal 14, as well as the implementation of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. We co-authored three chapters of the WOA III including chapters on governance, trade, and marine infrastructure. WOA III will be published soon. Read more here.