SCELG leads £20 million programme aimed at tackling threats to the world’s oceans

The Law School is delighted that one of its centres, the Strathclyde Centre for Environmental Law and Governance (SCELG), is to lead an ambitious £20-million, 5-year programme – the UKRI GCRF One Ocean Hub – aimed at transforming the global response to cumulative, urgent threats to the ocean. You can find out more about the project here:

https://www.strath.ac.uk/research/strathclydecentreenvironmentallawgovernance/oneoceanhub/   

The leader of the Hub, Professor Elisa Morgera of the Law School, said:

“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. The One Ocean Hub will bridge the current disconnects across law, science and society to empower local communities, woman and youth – who are particularly impacted by decision-making on the ocean – to co-develop research and solutions.

The aim is to predict, harness and share equitably environmental, socioeconomic and cultural benefits from ocean conservation and sustainable use. The Hub will also identify hidden trade-offs between more easily monetized 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 five-year programme is being funded by the UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), which is a £1.5 billion fund announced by the UK Government in late 2015 to support cutting-edge research that addresses the challenges faced by developing countries.

The One Ocean Hub has more than 50 partners in Africa, South Pacific and the Caribbean, including world-leading research centres, governmental, non-governmental and community organizations, as well as multiple UN agencies. The Hub will build on the ongoing collaboration on research and knowledge-exchange at the intersection of human rights and the environment between SCELG and the Centre for the Study of Human Rights Law, directed by Dr Elaine Webster.

Professor Morgera said:

Our aspiration is that decisions on the ocean will be informed by multiple values and knowledge systems and that the rights and worldviews of communities, women and youth will be recognised, valued and realised.

The considerable expertise in the School that is recognised in this prestigious award also means that our students are taught by the leading experts in the field. Professor Elisa Morgera is programme director of the LLM Global Environmental Law and Governance and Dr Daniela Diz (SCELG), who is the Hub’s deputy director, is programme director of the blended-learning LLM Law of the Sea, Sustainable Development and International Law. Dr Elaine Webster is programme director of the Human Rights. Our LLM programmes provide opportunities for students to be involved in related work and research projects.