Marine social science and conservation: exploring the policy potential of citizen behaviour change

At the United Nations Ocean Conference in 2017, the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) made a voluntary commitment to actively explore how ocean literacy can be catalysed to generate behaviour... [ view full abstract ]

At the United Nations Ocean Conference in 2017, the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) made a voluntary commitment to actively explore how ocean literacy can be catalysed to generate behaviour changes that increase conservation of the marine environment in support of UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 (Life Below Water). This commitment is part of UNEP-WCMC’s strategy to advance the transition to a healthy ocean by increasing uptake of social science in marine conservation on global, regional and national scales. To this end, UNEP-WCMC is convening multi-disciplinary expertise on new social science strategies such as ocean literacy and citizen behaviour change, and is designing guidelines to facilitate use of these strategies as tools to achieve global ocean policy goals and targets. This will support the delivery of national policy goals and international commitments under the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

In this context, UNEP-WCMC, in collaboration with international coral reef scientists and behaviour change experts, has developed new guidance to identify and target human behaviours that are harmful to coral reef ecosystems. Coral reefs are highly vulnerable to human activities and targeted behaviour change can relieve some of the human pressures on these ecosystems. Using behaviour-impact-pathways to identify relevant behaviours, effective and targeted messages were developed to promote context-specific behavioural changes, such as reducing diver contact with coral reefs. This presentation for IMCC5 will expand on the coral reef behaviour change work and outline how UNEP-WCMC’s marine social sciences strategy will contribute to effective marine biodiversity conservation.