Research grant focuses on oceans health, management

Participants at the One Ocean Hub inception phase regional workshop in Suva this week. Picture: SUPPLIED/USP MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

By WANSOLWARA STAFF

The University of the South Pacific has joined the global fight to keep our oceans healthy and sustainable after receiving an initial grant of GBP1.6million ($F4.42m) to lead key areas of research that would address the urgent challenges of oceans law, science and governance.

USP was recently awarded the grant under the One Ocean Hub programme, an ambitious GBP22m ($F60.83m) five-year  project funded by the UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research (UKRI) Fund.

This week, the University hosted the One Ocean Hub inception phase regional workshop to enable full hub operation by March 1. While there are 12 global research challenge partnership hubs under the One Ocean Hub programme, this was the only one that focused on oceans, particularly in the Pacific region.

Speaking at the traditional opening ceremony in Suva on Monday, USP’s deputy vice-chancellor for research, innovation and international, Professor Derrick Armstrong said event was the third of a series of international workshops to mark the start of a major collaboration made possible by the UKRI over five years.

The first two workshops in the series took place in South Africa and Ghana.

“Research on the world’s oceans is highly significant to this region. The ocean is central to everything in this region – our economies, our livelihoods, our many cultures and our wellbeing,” Prof Armstrong said.

“The University has a commitment to this ocean environment, both through its scientific study and by our efforts to support the development of good oceans governance and policy based on this scientific evidence.

“The emotional and social connection of the people of this region to the ocean is every bit as important. As a university, we are interested not only in studying the physical, cultural and social aspects of the oceanic continent but we also have a commitment to building the capacity of this region and supporting our member countries.”

He said Pacific countries had shown great leadership in the protection and networking of our ocean environment.

USP will be centrally involved across five core themes, namely global law for integrated ocean management; emotionally connecting with the ocean; sustainable and equitable fisheries in an ecosystem context; offshore (non-fisheries) marine resources for a sustainable blue economy; and transformative governance for an inclusive, innovative and responsible blue society.

“We at USP are challenged by the giant intellectual footsteps of the late Epeli Hau’ofa. They are big footsteps to fill – they are the footsteps of Oceania itself. But they are footsteps that inspire and guide us in a vision for Oceania, never casting a shadow that restrains and inhibits. We are challenged to be radical, to decolonize and to reinvent,” Prof Armstrong said.

He said a significant endeavor of the One Ocean Hub was to explore the intersectionality of these different domains and the beneficial impacts that could arise from perspectives rooted in the relationship between science, politics, culture and experience in this region.

The global One Ocean Hub programme is led by the University of Strathclyde in the UK and will bring together researchers, groups and organisations to address the challenges the world now faces with respect to oceans health and management, and to realise a vision for an integrated and sustainable approach to conservation and sustainable use.

Programme lead, Professor Elisa Morgera, who is also the director of the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law & Governance with the Law School said the hub would bridge the current disconnects across law, science and policy to empower local communities, women and youth.

She said the aim was to predict, harness and share equitably environmental, socioeconomic and cultural benefits from ocean conservation and sustainable use and within the USP component, this will be addressed in a Pacific Island context.

“Millions of people all over the world are entirely reliant upon the ocean for food, jobs and transport yet over-exploitation, competing uses, pollution and climate change are pushing ocean ecosystems towards a tipping point,” she said.

She said the hub would also identify hidden trade-offs between more easily monetised fishing or mining activities and less-understood values of the ocean’s deep cultural role, function in the carbon cycle, and potential in medical innovation.

The USP team comprises Associate Professors Gilianne Brodie and Ann Cheryl Armstrong, Professors Jeremy Hills and Matthew Allen, Dr Morgan Wairiu, Katy Soapi and P-J Bordahandy as well as Professor Derrick Armstrong.

USP is expected to launch the One Ocean Hub at the Innovation Hub, Laucala campus tomorrow.