Moving Together with Youth for Marine Conservation
― To achieve Canada’s Marine Conservation Targets,
We need youth to be involved
Canada is working to protect 25% of the land and ocean by 2025, and aiming to reach 30% by 2030. Youth are key to the success of these targets now and into the future, how we think about youth matters, including their involvement and contributions.
Including youth in coastal and ocean issues is a priority for the long-term sustainability of coastal communities in Newfoundland and Labrador. Communities want youth to participate community activities, relationships, and priorities, and to help take care of the land and waters. Youth are essential for the future of viable coastal communities.
In the past, youth held strong ties to communities, especially through the fishery. With this involvement decreasing, there are concerns about maintaining their ties to the ocean and coasts, and worries about their opportunities to, and desires to stay, in the community. This story map is about what the Moving Together project heard, saw, and learned from communities, NGOs, and others working with youth and encouraging them to be involved in communities and marine conservation.
If youth are leaders of today, we need to involve them differently
Unlike conventional approaches, approaches to involve youth should focus on keeping them active and feeling empowered, drawing on situations and contexts that matter to youth, and encouraging thinking about the big picture. We can learn from examples to encourage thinking about their design and implementation of youth outreach and engagement.
Youth are leaders of today and tomorrow
A common belief is that youth are future leaders of tomorrow. The belief underpins youth education about conservation and the design of outreach and engagement. However, coastal communities know that youth can contribute and lead now to important issues, although they might do that differently. If we think of youth as leaders of today, how do we need to collaborate with them in marine conservation?
Join us on a journey across the island
In Spring and Summer of 2024, the Moving Together project participated in, helped to lead, and discussed activities to involve youth. Many activities took place during World Ocean Day Week (June 3-8) and continue today. We collaborated with, and learned from, coastal communities such as the Town of Burgeo, Burgeo First Nation, NGOs like Atlantic Healthy Oceans Initiative (AHOI) ACAP Humber Arm, and St. John’s Public Libraries. We are grateful for all who participated in our activities and who let us enjoy theirs.
In the following map, you will see examples like fostered art-making, dialogue, new experiences, reflection, and learning. Each style of activity will have different challenges and opportunities. The project is sharing examples to encourage understanding and conversation about how to involve youth.
Youth have deep connections to ocean and coasts
Although they are changing, youth have deep connections to the ocean and its resources. Youth and those that care about them may not fully recognize these connections. Outreach and engagement can encourage them and make them more visible. If we understand the connections, then we can get insight into the motivations for youth to participant in marine conservation.
Youth are connected to the fishery
While youth may not be directly involved in the fishery like they used to, we learned that youth are connected to fishing in other ways through family and community, eating seafood, and learning to fish recreationally. There are some that do not want to fish or eat seafood. Others see fishing and working in the fishery as an important way to contribute to community.
Difficulty to engage older youth
It can be difficult to engage older students in ocean and coastal issues. At older ages, there may be complicated choices to make. Even though many want to be in the community, barriers for employment may seem overwhelming including in marine occupations. Some may need to leave communities for personal and educational reasons. At this age it is hard for them to feel connected with so much on their mind. Understanding and reflecting on those experiences and priorities is important to outreach and engagement.
Thinking across boxes
Some students can easily see the holistic connections between people and the ocean, while others need to organize their ideas into boxes depicting human and natural components. The use of this kind of thinking in boxes has implications for youth in marine conservation. It can be overused overtime, at all levels of education, and limit how people can understand the more complex issues. Outreach and engagement can encourage fluid and integrative thinking, providing a balance and appealing to diverse ways of thinking and learning.
To achieve Canada’s Marine Conservation Targets, we need act differently with youth.
Many activities with youth suggested the need for different approaches to reach out and engage with youth. We learned that approaches need to support youth empowerment, incorporating the idea that youth can be leaders of today, not just tomorrow. We also heard that youth want to participate in activities that consider situations that matter to them, related to their local connections and to their needs in the future. Further, working with youth challenges all of us to talk and act differently about marine conservation, including about how to understand connections, interactions and relationships across human and natural dimensions of marine conservation.
A range of activities can be used to involve youth, especially in pursuit of active, connected, and integrated outreach and engagement. We encourage youth leadership and contribution by involving them in the thoughtful design and implementation of outreach and engagement activities.
Join us. We want to hear from people of all ages and backgrounds to learn about what matters and how to involve more youth in marine conservation. Share your experiences and examples. Help build this journey together and shape progress for Canada’s Marine Conservation Targets.
This storymap was based on a youth engagement report developed by Moving Together for Marine Conservation. Scroll through it below, or download the report here.
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