Research

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

MARIPOLDATA aims to overcome gaps in how marine biodiversity data and monitoring within international politics is understood, studied and practiced. The project will significantly advance our knowledge of how marine biodiversity science is represented, developed and used in international negotiation settings and national monitoring programmes.

This will allow empirically grounded conclusions on how science-policy interrelations materialise and transform the governance of the global commons. The overall objective of the project is to develop and apply a new multiscale and interdisciplinary methodological approach for grounding the analysis of science-policy interrelations in empirical research.

The application of this approach to the newly emerging field of marine biodiversity politics will transform our understanding of the role of data in governing the oceans by producing fine-grained analyses of global and national monitoring policies and practices. The MARIPOLDATA project has four specific objectives, which are linked to four interrelated work packages and a specific set of research questions:

Investigate the negotiations of a new legally-binding treaty under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea aiming at the protection of marine biodiversity (WP1).

Map and analyse the distribution of marine biodiversity science and expertise around the globe and assess the opportunities for developing and using global and national monitoring infrastructures (WP2)

Examine the role of scientific data in international negotiations and processes for identifying and protecting ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs) in the framework of the CBD) (WP3).

Analyse and compare selected regional and national biodiversity monitoring policies and practices with regards to the political and technological strategies employed to access, regulate, manage and use marine biodiversity data. (WP4).

METHODOLOGY

The MARIPOLDATA project develops and applies a methodology that allows data collection at different field sites, policy levels and spatial scales. A set of qualitative and quantitative methods will be applied to empirically investigate how scientific concepts, criteria and indicators travel between different scales, as well as between sites of policy-making, assessment and monitoring. This will reveal the actual impacts and outputs of “big science” networks and activities on international negotiations and national monitoring infrastructures. By combining international and national scales, the research team will investigate how the positioning of governments related to science and technology within two international negotiation settings is linked to the actual policies and practices of national monitoring and data infrastructures (including investments, science policy, training programmes and big data management and analysis).

This will produce an unpresented understanding of the role of science and technology in governing and sharing benefits from marine biodiversity. The projects charts representations of marine science and data from the international level to the national levels, using moments of contestation to identify the different interests in marine biodiversity data and analyse the different expectations associated with its use. An important aspect of this is how these moments of contestation relate to the numbers, concepts and scientific criteria used at the national level – namely, the actual knowledge and data infrastructures developed and used in the pursuit of monitoring marine biodiversity.

Data will be collected and analysed across different policy-levels and spatial scales by combining 1) ethnographic studies at intergovernmental negotiation sites with 2) a comparative analysis of national biodiversity monitoring policies and practices and 3) bibliometric and social network analyses and oral history interviews for mapping marine biodiversity science.

WORK PACKAGES

WP 1

Work Package 1 investigates the negotiations on a new international legally binding instrument under the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). The project team participates in the negotiation sessions of the Intergovernmental Conference at the UN Headquarters in New York and conduct ethnographic research. Particular attention will be placed on the role and representation of marine biodiversity science and data in the negotiations and how different governments use and contest scientific knowledge throughout the negotiating process.

WP 2

In order to situate the science and data that is used in the international negotiations, Work Package 2 maps and analyses the global distribution of marine biodiversity science. This mapping exercise will be based on a combination of different methods, including: 1) bibliometric research, 2) social network analysis, 3) bibliographic research and 4) Oral History interviews with marine biodiversity scientists. On the basis of this, the particular science represented in global settings can be linked to transnational and national networks, institutions, infrastructures and capacities to monitor and manage marine biodiversity (data).

WP 3

Work Package 3 deals with the particular role of marine science and data at negotiations and meetings related to ecologically or biologically significant marine areas (EBSAs) in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). To this end, the MARIPOLDATA research team participates in three Conferences of the Parties (COPs) of the CBD (COP 14 in 2018, COP 15 in 2020 and COP 16 in 2022), following negotiating item “Marine and Coastal Biodiversity”. Particular attention will be placed on the role and representation of marine biodiversity science and data in the negotiations and how different governments use and contest scientific knowledge throughout the negotiating process.

WP 4

In order to complement and make sense of the data collected in WP 1, 2 and 3 and in order to evaluate the observations made at the international scale, work package 4 involves case studies on national policies and practices of monitoring marine biodiversity. The following three cases will be studied and compared: the United States, the European Union and Brazil. The comparison draws on data from 1) ethnographic research (WP 1 and WP 3), 2) the different maps produced to represent marine biodiversity science in each region and the oral history interviews with scientists from the different countries and 3) ethnographic research on marine biodiversity monitoring policies and practices in the US, the EU and Brazil.

Presentations & Talks

2020

Vadrot, Alice. “MARIPOLDATA – The Politics of Marine Biodiversity Data”, Meeting of the Law of the Sea Working Party (COMAR), 5 March 2020, Brussels, BELGIUM.

Vadrot, Alice. “Science-Policy Interrelations in and for Protecting Marine Biodiversity”, Biodiversity and the cultural landscape Symposium organized by Contemporary Matters, 15 January 2020, Vienna, AUSTRIA.

2019

Vadrot, Alice; Langlet, Arne; Tessnow-von Wysocki, Ina; Tolochko Petro. “Uncertainties in current Ocean Politics”, Fourth Annual Conceptual Workshop “Uncertainty”, 29 November 2019, Vienna, AUSTRIA.

Vadrot, Alice. “Negotiating conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity in the high seas: insights into science and politics”, Keynote speech at the 4th International conference for Ocean Governance for Sustainability, 26 November 2019, Piran, SLOVENIA.

Tessnow-von Wysocki, Ina. “Knowing how to govern the oceans”, Polar and Marine Policy Group Meeting, German Political Science Association (GPSA), 1 October 2019, Bielefeld, GERMANY.

Vadrot, Alice. “Science-Policy Interfaces for Protecting the Oceans: A Social Science Perspective”, Marine Regions Forum, 30 September 2019, Berlin, GERMANY.

Vadrot, Alice (with Hannah Hughes, Cardiff University). “Conducting research at global environmental negotiations”, ERC MARIPOLDATA Workshop, 10-11 September 2019, Vienna, AUSTRIA.

Vadrot, Alice (with Sarah de Rijcke, Centre for Science and Technology Studies). “Exploring Policies and Practices of Studying and Monitoring the Oceans: Innovations and Interruptions in Ocean Science”, Open Panel organization at 4s Annual Meeting, 7 September 2019, New Orleans, USA.

Vadrot, Alice. “The role of oral histories in understanding science-policy interrelations”, ERC MARIPOLDATA Workshop organized in cooperation with the Centre for Science and Policy, 25 June 2019, Cambridge, UK.

Vadrot, Alice. “The Politics of Marine Biodiversity Data: Global and National Policies and Practices of Monitoring the Oceans”, 18 June 2019, Cambridge, UK.

Vadrot, Alice. “Epistemic Selectivities in Global Environmental Politics: The case of Biodiversity”, Justice and the Global Environment Colloquium, Rutgers University, 10 April 2019, New Jersey, USA.

Vadrot, Alice. “The Role of National Focal Points in Intergovernmental Organisations”, ISA Annual Convention, 29 March 2019, Toronto, CANADA.

Vadrot, Alice. “Presentation of MARIPOLDATA”, Science Talk 2019, Vienna University, 12 March 2019, Vienna, AUSTRIA.

SURVEY `THE BBNJ DURING THE COVID-19 CRISIS´

The rapid spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) has led to quarantine measures all around the world and resulted in the cancellation or postponement of a great number of global meetings. The fourth conference on an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ Instrument) — is no exception to this. It is not yet known when it will take place. This is bound to greatly affect the international agenda and strategies set for the ocean in 2020.

One important pillar of MARIPOLDATA is to investigate the negotiations of a new legally-binding treaty under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea aiming at the protection of marine biodiversity based on collaborative event ethnography.

Since conducting field research (WP1) is currently impossible, the MARIPOLDATA team developed a survey to assess how the COVID-19 outbreak is affecting the various parties working on the BBNJ Treaty and how it is impacting on the work and activities carried out towards the conclusion of an agreement.

This study is targeted at all actors interested or actively working on the BBNJ Treaty. It takes no more than 6–7 minutes to complete the survey, which is available in English. Any answers you provide are confidential and cannot be linked to you individually. Survey results will be used to write scientific articles.

Deadline for participation is Tuesday 26th May.

To complete the survey, please click on the link: https://bbnjsurvey.formr.org/

If you have any question about this survey, do not hesitate to contact us: maripoldata.erc@univie.ac.at

It is essential that as many BBNJ stakeholders as possible participate. We would therefore be most grateful if you would help us disseminate this survey to colleagues.

Thank you in advance for participating.