MARE 2025 | People & the Sea Conference

The 2025 edition of the MARE People & the Sea Conference explores how we manage growing pressures on the ocean through the lens of tensions, trade-offs, and needed transformations. Taking place at the midpoint of the UN Ocean Decade (2021–2030), the event brings together scholars, practitioners, and policymakers to examine the complex balance between sustainable ocean governance, marine resource use, and coastal community wellbeing.

Climate change and intensifying human activities are reshaping marine systems. As available space and resources decline, governance must navigate difficult decisions. Unequal access to marine benefits and knowledge deepens social and political divides. Against this backdrop, MARE 2025 asks: What kind of transformation do we need — and who decides what the ocean of the future should look like?

With cross-sectoral contributions—from small-scale fisheries to marine energy, tourism to conservation—the conference invites interdisciplinary engagement across four sub-themes focused on knowledge, governance, values, and justice. MARE 2025 is endorsed as an official UN Ocean Decade activity and aims to co-develop the science we need for the ocean we want.

CrossGov at MARE 2025

At the 2025 People & the Sea conference, CrossGov will contribute to key discussions on marine policy coherence, institutional integration, and sustainable ocean governance. The project is expected to participate in joint sessions with sister initiatives, share insights from case studies across Europe, and showcase tools like its new MOOC on marine governance. Through presentations, posters, and interactive sessions, CrossGov will foster dialogue on aligning policies across marine and freshwater realms for the Ocean Decade and beyond.