Recognising the ocean as a living being is increasingly important for global sustainability, claim researchers. The United Nations has declared a Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development from 2021 to 2030 outlining 10 challenges to be tackled over 10 years with the goal of advancing efforts to reverse the ocean’s decline and improve conditions. The declaration has added to a growing movement calling for the development of a new ocean ethos—one that allows for greater representation and recognition of the ocean’s vital role.

Dr. Kelsey Leonard, Canada Research Chair and professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, is part of an emerging field that identifies recognizing the Rights of Nature as a crucial pathway for achieving these goals.

Do non-humans have inherent rights?

The Rights of Nature is one branch of Earth law that promotes greater respect for all living things on our planet by recognizing that nonhumans have inherent rights and value, merely by existing. In this framing, the ocean is its own legal entity. To illustrate, the Chicama wave was granted legal protections under Peruvian national law in 2016. This law now prohibits changes to the coastline and seabed that would alter the integrity of the wave, which is the longest left-breaking wave in the world.

Recognising the ocean’s rights is an important distinction that moves away from assuming “nature is a subject” or “service provider” that is commonly embedded in our current global attitudes which are rooted in colonialism and place humanity above nature. Adopting an ocean-centered governance approach that prioritizes the ecological needs and interests of the ocean will shift this longstanding anthropocentric lens to put the ocean first.

To guide this approach researchers put forward five principles to guide the transformation:

• Ocean rights (including the right to life and restoration)
• Ocean relationality (creating a balanced and reciprocal relationship between humans and the ocean)
• Ocean data sovereignty (producing an accessible technological infrastructure for observing ocean trends)
• Ocean protection (accepting collective responsibility to protect and preserve the ocean)
• Ocean justice (ensuring the democratization and equitable access to ocean spaces and resources).

Overall, the approach and its paradigm shift are informed by Indigenous Peoples’ perspectives and worldviews.

Shifting our relationship and recognizing the ocean as a living being is increasingly important for repairing the devastation that humanity has created. Adopting an ocean-centered governance approach and its principles will allow governments, businesses and citizens to realize solutions to the challenges the United Nations identified, like tackling marine pollution, increasing resilience to ocean hazards and developing an equitable ocean economy.

The above is an edit from an article in PhysOrg. The full peer-reviewed article – ‘Living in relationship with the Ocean to transform governance in the UN Ocean Decade’ – published in PLOS Biology, can be read here.