46 Types of Ocean Equity

Another step for organisations to take is to develop a foundational understanding of what equity and justice mean, and how these norms might be applied in marine policies and programs. Equity and justice refer, in general terms, to right and fair treatment of people – including in the processes, application and outcomes of a public policy or organisational practice. The academic literature related to conservation, environmental management and the oceans have proposed various dimensions that are integral to equity or justice, including recognitional, procedural, distributional, management, environmental, and contextual dimensions (Bennett et al., 2019a; Bennett et al., 2021b; Engen et al., 2021; McDermott et al., 2013; Pascual et al., 2014; Schreckenberg et al., 2016; Zafra-Calvo et al., 2017).

‘Whale Cutouts on a Blue Surface’ by Artem Podrez used under a Pexels License

Drawing insights from these literatures, for example, the various dimensions of ‘ocean equity’ might be defined as follows:

• Recognitional equity: the acknowledgement and consideration of local rights, values, visions, knowledge, needs and livelihoods in policy and practice;
• Procedural equity: the level of inclusiveness and participation in decision-making, and the embodiment of good governance principles (e.g., transparency, accountability, responsiveness, consensus orientation and efficiency);
• Distributional equity: the degree of fairness in the allocation of benefits, and the minimisation of harms to local populations and among groups;
• Management equity: the extent of local capacity for, leadership in, and authority over management activities;
• Environmental equity: the safeguarding and maintenance of local environmental quality, sustainability, and nature’s benefits to people; and,
• Contextual equity: the extent to which broader contextual factors (e.g., economic, governance, social structures, climate change, environmental conditions, rule of law) enable or undermine local social equity and the advancement of equity in policy and practice (see Figure 1).

The application of each dimension of ocean equity will, of course, differ across social, cultural, economic, historical and political contexts (Dawson et al., 2018; Gurney et al., 2021). Thus ocean organisations should convene strategic teams and inclusive conversations to consider the practical implications and operationalisation of each dimension for the design of policies, practices, programs, or funding portfolios for the different marine policies spheres that are within their purview.

The text and images in this chapter are from “Mainstreaming Equity and Justice in the Ocean” by Nathan J. Bennett, which is licensed under CC BY 4.0, except for minor text edits and bolding of text for emphasis, which has been added by Trish Corbett.