Youth Voices for the Ocean Project

“The youth generation holds a vital key to ocean sustainability and their voices of awareness and activism should resonate like the echoes of ocean waves.” 

(Satya Narayana Rao, from Malaysia, representing the YOUNGO Ocean Voice Working Group)

Our Goal

We are a group of passionate young co-researchers aged 18-35, dedicated to ensuring that the voices of youth are heard in the future of our ocean. Through collaboration and research across Scotland and South Africa, we are identifying ways to better integrate young people into ocean decision-making processes. Our goal is to empower the next generation to shape the policies, actions, and solutions that will protect and sustain our oceans for years to come. 

What's the problem?

Young people are the future guardians and inheritors of the sea. Yet, young people are overlooked as participants in ocean decision-making. Young people not only have a social right to participate in issues that impact them, but there are also multiple benefits to their engagement. Knowledge is created that is accessible to youth, and therefore to society as a whole, thereby elevating broader public engagement. Youth become more skilled and prepared to be involved members of the community and provide a source of different viewpoints, contributing to increased innovation, originality and problem-solving. Despite these benefits, there is a lack of research to guide the meaningful engagement of young people in ocean decision-making. Previous research has demonstrated that young people are eager to engage in ocean decision-making. This project takes the next crucial step - addressing the vital question of 'how'. How can we engage young people in ocean decision-making?

OUR STORY

This project utilises a co-research approach, where young people are invited to be actively involved throughout the research process. This approach not only ensures the project's outcomes reflect young people's lived experiences but also empowers them throughout the process as active agents of change. Engaging young people in the research process acknowledges that young people are important ocean stakeholders, and is fully realised in the pursuit of sustainable and inclusive ocean governance. By positioning them as co-researchers, the project taps into their unique insights and perspectives, ensuring that the strategies developed are not only theoretically sound but also practically relevant and effective in real-world contexts.

“Youth is about renewal, fresh ideas, challenging old traditions and yearning for the untried. Youth finds change inebriating, not intimidating. Youth is also impetuous, unpredictable: with the promise of a better future comes a veiled threat to tear down the past… Youth breaks all the rules. Youth is colourful, irreverent, entertaining, sometimes shocking, almost always rebellious…

Youth is, in a word, energy” - Sohail Inayatullah, 2002

Contact us

For inquiries or collaborations, please fill out the form below or reach out to us at contact@youthvoicesfortheocean.com