Center for Life Ethics
Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 7
D-53113 Bonn
Center for Life Ethics
Schaumburg-Lippe-Straße 7
D-53113 Bonn
Our oceans are regularly referred to as the next frontier for global human development, bolstered by persistent narratives that frame the sea as a bounty of natural resources. However, current ocean governance is fragmented across levels, scales, and thematic areas – and lacks sufficient ocean governance science to guide decision-making. As a result, local communities, NGOs, and national ministries are struggling to equitable, sustainable, and pre-cautionary development that doesn’t undermine ecosystem resilience or further marginalize vulnerable populations dependent on local resources for food, livelihoods, and wellbeing.
SharedSeas will examine a radically different policy vision for ocean governance - centred on common property rights and collective governance - to align social justice and sustainability. The overall objective is to examine the viability, desirability and feasibility of amplifying common property rights as a governance model for the Blue Economy. Detailed theory is needed to specify how different amplification pathways can enable shared learning, coordination and cooperation across levels, scales, sectors and geographies. SharedSeas has the ambitious goal to test eight pathways from amplification theory (stabilizing, speeding up, growing, spreading, transferring, replicating, scaling up, scaling deep) as avenues for mainstreaming the principles and practices for effectively designing and governing ocean commons at multiple governance levels.
The project is led by the Center for Life Ethics, and is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) as a Starting Grant.
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