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

苏格兰政府已经制定了到2045年苏格兰蓝色经济的长期目标。这一愿景认为，我们的海洋环境是维持国家经济繁荣和确保人类福祉的重要角色，但这应该以保护和增强我们的海洋资产的方式来实现。该愿景还认识到，要做到这一点，我们需要改变管理“蓝色”资源的方式，以一种雄心勃勃但又具有包容性的方式。迄今为止，人们对包容性和公正的海洋治理的关注不够。1982年《联合国海洋法公约》（UN Convention of The Law of The Sea）的通过，让原住民和沿海社区等边缘化群体乐观地认为，他们可能（重新）获得海洋资源的控制权，但这种情况尚未发生。事实上，在海洋规划过程中，各种群体的边缘化和排斥今天仍在继续。我们知道，确保公众参与协商过程，以及更广泛的海洋规划和管理，是一项重大挑战。造成这种情况的原因有很多，包括沟通不畅，认为过程是故意排斥性的，缺乏海洋知识，过程的资源强度，以及自上而下的过程占主导地位。当参与成功时，这些过程往往由成熟的（通常是年长的）声音主导；通常代表既得利益。尽管环境（特别是气候变化）和生物多样性经常被认为是年轻人关注的主要问题之一，但在海洋规划决策和进程中，青年的声音并不经常出现。这违反了关于环境可持续性的国际协议，青年的作用在包括教育（可持续发展目标4）和减少不平等（可持续发展目标11）在内的几个可持续发展目标中得到了承认。如果苏格兰政府要以一种不仅可持续而且包容和公平的方式实现苏格兰蓝色经济的雄心勃勃的愿景，那么海洋规划必须考虑如何纳入青年的声音。本项目将探索可用于增加青年声音的治理机制和参与过程，包括测试较为温和的措施和潜在的良好做法。它将分析现有的过程，回顾过去和现在，并探索如何调整参与过程，以确保“青年为自然发声”纳入未来。该项目将采用案例研究的方法，调查在区域海洋规划中纳入“青年自然之声”的选择。将分析三种可能的机制：a)苏格兰青年议会（目前尚在试行中）；b)苏格兰青年变海者慈善机构；c)区域海洋规划伙伴关系（克莱德岛和西岛-对后者表示暂时兴趣）。基于桌面的政策/监管分析将调查每种案例研究机制中青年声音纳入的障碍和激励因素。与区域海洋规划利益相关者的访谈将深入探讨青年声音包容的过去和现在的经验。与年轻人（包括苏格兰青年议会成员和苏格兰青年海洋改变者）的焦点小组研讨会将提供关于海洋知识水平、决策途径和首选方法的诚实反映。研究结果将被综合起来，以确定从三个机制中吸取的经验教训，以制定建议的过程和方法，以纳入“青年为自然发声”。这些经验教训将在项目结束时与NatureScot的CASE组成部分进行讨论——确定如何在苏格兰青年生物多样性小组“Reroute”的基础上进一步发展。

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.