Inclusion of the 'Youth Voice for Nature' in Regional Marine Planning

苏格兰政府为苏格兰的蓝色经济制定了到2045年的长期目标。这一愿景认为，我们的海洋环境为国家维持经济繁荣，并在确保人类福祉方面发挥重要作用，但这一点应该以保护和加强我们的海洋资产的方式进行。该愿景还认识到，要做到这一点，我们需要以一种既雄心勃勃又兼容并蓄的方式，改变我们管理“蓝色”资源的方式。到目前为止，人们对包容和公正的海洋治理可能是什么样子的关注不够。1982年通过的《联合国海洋法公约》为土著人民和沿海社区等被边缘化的群体带来了乐观情绪，他们可能(重新)获得对海洋资源的控制权，但这种情况尚未发生。事实上，今天在海洋规划过程中，各种群体仍然被边缘化和排斥。我们知道，确保公众参与咨询过程，以及更广泛地规划和管理我们的海洋，是一项重大的挑战。造成这种情况的原因有很多，包括沟通不畅和认为进程是故意排斥的、缺乏海洋素养、进程的资源密集度以及自上而下的进程占主导地位。虽然环境(特别是气候变化)和生物多样性经常被年轻人的主要关切之一所提及，但青年的声音并不经常出现在海洋规划的决策和进程中。这违反了关于环境可持续性的国际协定，青年的作用在包括教育(SDG4)和减少不平等(SDG11)在内的几个可持续发展目标中得到承认。如果苏格兰政府要实现他们对苏格兰蓝色经济的雄心勃勃的愿景，不仅是可持续的，而且是包容和公平的，那么海洋规划必须考虑如何纳入青年的声音。该项目将探索可能用于增加青年声音的治理机制和参与过程，包括测试更软的措施和潜在的良好做法。它将分析现有的进程，回顾过去和现在，并探索如何调整参与进程，以确保未来将“青年为自然发声”纳入未来。该项目将采用个案研究方法，调查将“青年为自然发声”纳入区域海洋规划的各种备选方案。将分析三种可能的机制：a)苏格兰青年议会(目前暂定)；b)苏格兰青年换海人慈善组织；c)区域海洋规划伙伴关系(克莱德和西岛--对后者表示暂定兴趣)。一项基于案头的政策/监管分析将调查每个案例研究机制纳入青年声音的障碍和诱因。与区域海洋规划利益攸关方的访谈将深入探讨纳入青年声音的过去和现在的经验。与包括苏格兰青年议会成员和年轻的苏格兰海洋改变者在内的年轻人举行的焦点小组研讨会将提供对海洋文化水平、决策机会和首选方法的诚实反思。调查结果将被综合，以确定在三个机制中吸取的教训，以制定纳入“青年为自然发声”的推荐程序和方法。这些经验教训将在项目接近尾声时与NatureScot一起学习案例部分--确定如何在苏格兰青年生物多样性小组‘Reroute’的基础上再接再厉并向前推进。

The Scottish Government has set out a long-term ambition for Scotland's Blue Economy to 2045. This vision sees our marine environment as maintaining economic prosperity for the nation and playing an important role in ensuring human wellbeing, but that this should be done in a way that protects and enhances our marine assets. The vision also recognises that to do this, we need to transform the way that we manage our 'blue' resources, in a way that is ambitious yet also inclusive.There has, to date, been inadequate attention paid to what an inclusive and just marine governance might look like. The adoption of UN Convention of the Law of the Sea in 1982 created optimism for marginalised groups such as indigenous peoples and coastal communities that they may (re)gain control of marine resources, yet this has not yet occurred. Indeed, marginalisation and exclusion of various groups in marine planning processes continues today.We know that securing public engagement in consultation processes, and the wider planning and management of our seas is a significant challenge. This is for many reasons, including poor communication and perceptions that processes are deliberately exclusionary, a lack of ocean literacy, resource intensity of the process, and the domination of top-down processes. When engagement is successful, such processes tend to be dominated by well-established (often older) voices; generally representing vested interests.Despite the environment (particularly climate change) and biodiversity being regularly cited as one of the major concerns of younger people, youth voices do not feature regularly in marine planning decisions and processes. This is in contravention to international agreements on environmental sustainability, with the role of youth being recognised in several of the SDGs including education (SDG4) and reduction of inequalities (SDG11). If the Scottish Government is to achieve their ambitious vision for Scotland's Blue Economy in a way that is not only sustainable but also inclusive and equitable, then marine planning must consider how to incorporate the youth voice.This project will explore governance mechanisms and engagement processes that might be used to increase youth voices, including the testing of softer measures and potential good practice. It will analyse existing processes, looking to the past and present, and explore ways in which engagement processes may be adapted to ensure the 'youth voice for nature' is included into the future.This project will take a case study approach to investigating options for the inclusion of the 'youth voice for nature' in regional marine planning. Three potential mechanisms will be analysed: a) Scottish Youth Parliament (currently tentative); b) Young Scottish Sea Changers Charity; c) Regional Marine Planning Partnerships (Clyde and Western Isles - tentative interest expressed for the latter).A desk-based policy/regulatory analysis will investigate the barriers and incentives to youth voice inclusion for each of the case study mechanisms. Interviews with regional marine planning stakeholders will take a deep dive into past and present experiences of youth voice inclusion. Focus group workshops with young people, including members of the Scottish Youth Parliament and Young Scottish Sea Changers will provide an honest reflection on ocean literacy levels, access to decision-making and preferred approaches.The findings will be synthesised to identify the lessons learnt across the three mechanisms to develop recommended processes and methods for inclusion of the 'youth voice for nature'. These lessons will be taken up in the CASE component with NatureScot towards the end of the project - identifying how to build upon and move forward 'Reroute', Scotland's Youth Biodiversity Panel.