PILLAR 4:

Future of Ocean Governance

ABOUT THE PILLAR

This pillar plays a central role regarding high-level intergovernmental and United Nations Initiatives that will propel thinking about the future of ocean governance and its interconnections with pressing economic and social issues over this fifty year span. A key focus is investigating and solving an important strand of the Future Ocean Programme, which is the absence of an appropriate forum to mediate ocean governance advice within UN system bodies. Research under this pillar will include identifying the factors necessary to establish the proposed IPOS while building on previous work undertaken with the support of The Nippon Foundation. It will also contribute to UN planning processes for designing and funding governance arrangements emerging under the BBNJ Agreement. Additionally, this pillar will generate knowledge using methodologies from future studies, political economy, and law to model desirable ocean governance futures— and anticipate those that must be avoided.

Meet The RESEARCH TEAM

Pillar Team Leads


Prof. Ronán Long

director, WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute

Dr. Zhen Sun

Associate Professor, (Research/Ocean Sustainability, Governance & Management)

Dr. Ríán Derrig

Associate Research Officer, WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute