The city of Paraty, an important tourist spot in Brazil, has situations of high marine environment degradation, including overfishing, excessive trawling, bay pollution (lack of basic sanitation), marine environment destruction and overhunting of protected species in protected areas. This project seeks to educate community youth on the impacts of anthropogenic actions and also present sustainable solutions that can replace predatory activities and increase the fishing stock of the region through respect for protected areas.

The Let the Sea Turtle Live Project is a continuation of a project started in 2019 by our Regional Representative, Forbi Perise. For this project, he and his team go to coastal communities in Cameroon to educate fishers about the importance of Sea Turtle Conservation, as they are still targeted in many communities for food.

Today, the Belarusian government considers actions that help achieve SDG14 to be irrelevant for the country, since Belarus has no access to the sea. However, young people disagree and do consider the challenge of protecting the ocean environment to be relevant for Belarus (MyWorld, 2020). As part of the Youth Initiative for Sustainable Development, we hold 5 informal lessons in 5 districts of the Minsk region (Belarus), which tell young people aged 14-20 about the problem of pollution of the world’s ocean. The final interactive event in Minsk is conducted in the Global Jam format, where young people come together and develop projects and solutions to the problems in Belarus pertaining to SDG 14.

Navier is bringing change to the maritime industry through the development of clean, efficient technology, unlocking a future where small vessels are clean, efficient, and easy to operate. The company’s unique multidisciplinary heritage combines deep maritime experience with rigorous expertise in aerospace and autonomous system engineering. In the long term, they view the Navier 27 as a platform for more than just fun. If small vessels can be made efficient and cost effective, they see a future where these craft can play an integral role in waterborne transportation.

This project funded the development of the SOA Timor-Leste Hub. In affiliation with the Timorese Youths Initiative for Development organization, they carried out two ocean literacy projects: an ocean story-telling competition and an educational webinar.

Saltwater Classroom was founded in 2018 by Lexi Doudera, a marine biology major who understands that youth education is key to conserving coastal areas. She will build off the success of their SOA-supported curriculum on corals by conducting a  "Deep Dive" Workshop for 250 3rd-5th grade students focused on kelp forests in collaboration with non-profit partners. Participants will learn about kelp itself, kelp forests as an ecosystem, trophic cascade, particular species, as well as an introduction to kelp aquaculture and its role in today's ocean landscape. Behind coral reefs, kelp forests are the second most vulnerable ecosystem in the ocean and most people know very little about them.

"Amigos del Estero, Amigos del Oceano" educates children 8-14 years old in 4 neighborhoods of Guayaquil informed by IOC-UNESCO ocean principles; for this project, they will train 120 Ecoleaders and create a storybook about mangrove ecosystems, as well as facilitate student trips to cleanup local mangroves

Sibolga is one of the smallest cities in Indonesia, on the coast of Sumatera. Almost all of the city is bordered by a beach. Seabolga was formed after the Divers Clean Action Indonesia Youth Marine Debris Conference in 2019, with the mission to protect Sibolga from it’s growing plastic waste problem. Seabolga goes to school 2020 is a program which aims to educate children in Sibolga’s schools about Marine Debris and its impact on the ocean and on human life.

Bodhi is a student at the University of British Columbia and the founder of Oneworldbreath.org, an organization that unites youth around the importance of marine conservation. He will use his innovation prize to reach 1,000 ocean-aware youth in British Columbia and beyond.