voices from the ocean
Photo credit: Erik Lukas / Ocean Image Bank
Interview series: Voices from the Ocean
As part of the satellite event, “The Inclusivity We Need for the Ocean We Want,” during the Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona 2024, the ECOP Programme team, in collaboration with GOAL and The Ocean Knowledge Action Network, gathered the voices of underrepresented coastal and indigenous communities.
This initiative aims to provide these communities with a platform to share their experiences and needs during the Ocean Decade. The goal of these videos is to amplify the voices of different groups worldwide that are often underrepresented in high-level discussions but whose voice is essential to achieve the ocean we want.
Under the framework of the UN Ocean Decade Conference, Barcelona, the ECOP Programme, GOAL and OceanKAN joined forces to visit and ask what are the biggest challenges facing the people who live in, from, and with the ocean daily.
This trailer was screened during the event on 9 April 2024; it is a compilation of the voices in this series and a call to the rest of the world; when discussing the future of our shared ocean, please do not leave them out.
El Salvador
In this video, the small-scale fisher, Victos Manuel from San José de la Montaña, El Salvador, explains how the lack of proper equipment limits them to face the current challenges his community is facing. Credits: Kirsztina Ilosvay and Walter Elías.
El Salvador
In this video the fisher Juan Santos López Roddrígez explains the challenges that his community in San José de la Montaña, El Salvador, are facing due to the increasing sea temperatures and decreasing availability of resources. Credits: Kirsztina Ilosvay and Walter Elías
El Salvador
In this video, the fisher Pares Isaac Aria Funes from the San José de la Montaña, El Salvador explains how much climate change is affecting the community and the support needed to face this challenge. Credits: Kirsztina Ilosvay and Walter Elías
Costa Rica
In this video the small-scale fisher Minor Lara from the Cuanijiquil community in Costa Rica explains the challenges his community if facing in the current Ocean Decade and how his community is organizing to face this challenges. Credits: Paola Diaz Canales (ECOP Honduras coordinator)
Costa Rica
In this video, a researcher from the CC-MAR in Costa Rica shares the experiences and responses of the local coastal communities into the current Ocean Decade Challenges. Credits: Paola Diaz Canales (ECOP Honduras coordinator)
Honduras
In this video the Garifuna community leader Leticia Serrano of San Juan, Honduras, expresses the need to preserve the local knowledge as a way to face the current ocean challenges her community is facing. Credits: San Martín Chicas (Coral Reef Alliance).
Sierra Leone
In this video the small-scale In this video, a traditional fisher of the Goderich community sheds light on the primary ocean-related challenges his community confronts, shares the strategies they employ to tackle these obstacles, and delivers a powerful message to participants of the UN Ocean Decade Conference in Barcelona, April 2024. Credits: GOAL
Malaysia
In this video the traditional fisher, Ahman Zulfauzi Awang, from Malaysia the current issues related to illegal fishing happening in his community and the hardship they are facing due to declining marine resources. Credits: Aidil and Ebbnu
Honduras
The small-scale fisher Adolfo Fuén Suazo from the community of El Corozal explains the challenges his community is facing and the importance of addressing them to ensure that the next generation can enjoy the many riches that the ocean can offer us. Credits: GOAL
India
In this video, the Association of Fisheries Graduates Kerala visits artisanal fishers from Nattika Beach, Kerala, India, to explore their perspectives on ocean-related challenges. Credits: Association of Fisheries Graduates Kerala (India
India
In this video, the Association of Fisheries Graduates Kerala visited the Kerala coast in India to share the challenges that traditional fishers are facing, including market fluctuations, decreasing resources, illegal fishing and sea level rise.
Credits: Association of Fisheries Graduates Kerala (India)
India
In this video the fisher Koya from Ponnani, India, shares the current struggles of the fishing sector and explains the importance of listening to the people in the sector. Credits: Association of Fisheries Graduates Kerala (India)
Brazil
In this video, Leopoldo Cavaleri Gerhardinger from Bazil proposes a human rights-based approach to support sustainable small-scale fishers and highlight their important role in the Ocean Decade at an international level. Credits: Leopoldo Cavaleri Gerhardinger (FutureEarth and International Collective in Support of Fishworkers)
We thank all coastal communities for their participation and contribution to this video series. We honour your vital role in the Ocean Decade.