According to UN Trade & Development, between 1995 and 2020, the economic sector associated to maritime activities grew 2.5 times, twice as fast as the global economy. In 2023, the maritime commerce sector reached $2.2 trillion, about 7% of world trade. However, the scientific community has long been sounding the alarm about this Blue Acceleration, a race to extract food and materials and occupy maritime areas at an unprecedented speed and intensity that is currently neither sustainable nor equitable.
This rapid expansion of maritime industries is in fact driven by a concentration of benefits in the hands of a few players, while the burdens of their development (pollution, limited access to resources and protected areas, and impact on the climate) fall on local communities, indigenous communities, women, and small-scale fishers, who are often not included in decision-making processes.
A scientific article published on February 5 on the cover of Nature magazine proposes a new framework for promoting equity in ocean-related initiatives, projects, and policies. It is called the Ocean Equity Index, and it consists of 12 criteria that represent the fundamental components of ocean equity. The criteria include human and indigenous rights, the right to a healthy ocean, knowledge and values, institutions, inclusion and influence, transparency, accountability, dispute resolution, damage assessment, mitigation measures, benefit assessment, and benefit sharing. Each criterion is rated from 0 (violation) to 3 (full implementation).
The three interconnected areas of ocean equity
The 12 criteria are divided into three areas: The first concerns respect for and promotion of the rights and different knowledge systems, values, and institutions of all actors involved (recognitional equity). The second verifies whether, during the decision-making process, there is an opportunity for all actors involved to participate effectively in decisions relating to ocean initiatives that affect them and the responsibility to fulfil their duties (procedural equity). Finally, the third aspect considers whether there is a fair distribution of the harms and benefits associated with ocean initiatives among all stakeholders, including current and future generations (distributional equity).
“Human activity in the ocean is intensifying across space and sectors – from shipping and aquatic farming to deep-sea mining and offshore harnessing of energy,” Joachim Claudet, research director at CNRS and corresponding author of the article, told Renewable Matter. “The benefits from such activities are accumulated by a small group of actors, whereas the burdens of ocean development – such as pollution, restricted access and climate impacts – often fall on marginalised groups, including Indigenous peoples, local communities, women and small-scale fishers. In response, governments and other organisations have made unprecedented commitments to advancing ocean equity over the past few years – through the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the UN High Seas Treaty, for instance. However, progress towards these commitments has been hindered by unclear definitions of equity, the unavailability of consolidated metrics or indicators, a limited capacity for resource-intensive assessments and a lack of actionable guidance for advancing ocean equity.”
A tool for evaluating both private and government actions
To demonstrate the applicability of the index, the authors examine six case studies, where the maximum score that can be obtained is 100%. The lowest score was given to the political declaration of the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) in June 2026 (score of 48%), while the highest scores were given to the environmental impact assessment (EIA) framework of a Danish company that built an offshore wind farm and to the rāhui governance in French Polynesia (78% each).
Initiatives that received the same score may differ in how the three areas of ocean equity are respected. For example, the rāhui governance project in French Polynesia achieved high scores for recognitional equity, but lower scores for procedural equity and distributional equity, while the environmental impact assessment for the wind farm project scored lower for recognitional equity but higher in the other two areas. The three case studies considered were a local fishing project in Tanzania and Mexico's national policies for blue carbon projects (61% both) and an ecosystem-based fisheries management project in Canada (75%).
According to experts, the Ocean Equity Index could be useful for communities wishing to take legal action against entities that carry out maritime activities without taking human rights into account. “The OEI is designed to be used by indigenous peoples, local communities, non-governmental organisations, private companies, governments, and researchers to robustly and quickly assess equity, identify improvement actions, and monitor progress over time,” Claudet tells us. “Actors seeking to fulfil these equity obligations can apply the OEI as a framework to measure status and progress, identify key strengths and gaps, and develop strategies for more equitable design and implementation. Ultimately, the OEI aims to contribute to better integration of equity into ocean initiatives, ensuring better outcomes for coastal populations and marine ecosystems now and in the future.”
Harj Narulla, a lawyer and global expert in climate law and litigation at Doughty Street Chambers and the University of Oxford who did not participate in the study, told Renewable Matter that “The Ocean Equity Index is a practical tool that helps empower frontline communities grappling with the climate crisis, pollution and environmental harm. The Index can help drive accountability for corporations and governments which infringe the rights of coastal indigenous communities.” Narulla represents the Solomon Islands in advisory proceedings before the International Court of Justice on climate change, and has been instructed in advisory proceedings on climate change before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
It seems not easy to uphold human rights related to maritime activities
“Economic activity associated with the ocean has exploded over the past 50 years, but this is hard to celebrate if this growth is not sustainable and equitable,” Robert Blasiak, associate professor at the Stockholm Resilience Center at Stockholm University, told Renewable Matter. Blasiak's research focuses on the sustainable management of maritime activities and the equitable use of genetic material extracted from marine organisms. Together with colleagues, he published an article in 2018, which sparked widespread debate. Faced with the proliferation of patents on marine organism genetic sequences held by a few corporations, the researchers had to question who truly owns ocean biodiversity, and ended up discussing the issue in the context of the Treaty on the High Seas (Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, BBNJ), which was then still up for debate.
The Treaty on the High Seas, which came into force last month, is one of the few international legal agreements that recognises the rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. But this does not necessarily ensure that these rights will be respected. “The equity dimensions of implementing the BBNJ Agreement are going to be complex for many reasons”, Blasiak told us. “Much attention has been paid to marine genetic resources and issues of access and benefit sharing, not least due to the high hurdles – economic and otherwise – to engaging productively in biotechnology processes. But this is really just the tip of the iceberg. Ensuring equitable decision-making processes for these global commons while many countries have not yet ratified the Agreement, and strongmen are pulling other countries into unilateralism, will be huge challenges. The Ocean Equity Index provides an opportunity to keep track of how well we manage this challenge over time.”
For Joachim Claudet, the Ocean Equity Index should be used in maritime spatial planning processes, complementing the Marine Spatial Planning Index (MSP Index), which focuses on balancing the demands for space for maritime industrial activities with environmental protection obligations.
Don't take the approval of all maritime activities for granted
The report The Ocean and Human Rights, published at the end of 2024 by Astrid Puentes Riaño, UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, shows that the current degradation of the ocean violates human rights, including the right to a clean and healthy environment, disproportionately affecting historically and systematically marginalised people and communities.
“The main reason I wrote the report on human rights and the ocean is that for a long time, most of the work done on the ocean, whether focused on fisheries, conservation, or BBNJ, has been done primarily in relation to environmental and technical aspects, without considering the human rights aspect of human activities in the ocean,” Puentes Riaño tells Renewable Matter.
With regard to the Ocean Equity Index, Puentes Riaño suggests that United Nations human rights standards be included in its application. For example, through the use of the FAO manual on Free Prior Informed Consent (FPIC), an obligation for States under the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Or, referring to its June 2025 report to the United Nations General Assembly, which proposes moving from Environmental Impact Assessments (ESHRIA) to ensure that assessments carried out prior to the start of activities also take into account human rights and social impact.
“ESHRIA must always be a process that truly assesses whether a project should be approved or not, rather than assuming that its authorisation is automatic,” reads the summary of the report. Furthermore, Puentes Riaño concludes, “adopting a human rights-based approach to the planning and management of maritime activities is an obligation, not a favour.”
Cover: indigenous fishermen of Sri Lanka, photo by Envato