James Cook University researchers have helped develop a world-first Ocean Equity Index (OEI) giving communities, governments and NGOs a simple way to judge whether ocean projects are fair and inclusive.
As ocean industries expand, inequity is accelerating with costs ranging from pollution, to climate impacts falling disproportionately on coastal communities, Indigenous Peoples, women, and small-scale fishers.
Presented in a peer-reviewed paper published in Nature, the OEI was developed by an international working group of 27 researches and is built on 12 criteria, allowing users to pinpoint exactly where a project might be falling short in terms of equity.
Postdoctoral MSCA researcher Dr Natali Lazzari, currently based at James Cook University's Global Ecology Lab, said the tool is designed to be used by a wide range of people involved in ocean initiatives.
"This is an index that will allow not just researchers, but also practitioners, local communities, Indigenous Peoples, to assess whether their projects, management measures, or any other initiative they are developing is equitable," said Dr Lazarri, who worked on the project with fellow JCU researchers Dr Georgina Gurney and Dr Jacqueline Lau.
"The idea is that everyone can use the OEI. You don't need to have a specific training. All the documents, all the information is in our website and it's all free, so everyone can access it.
"When you use the tool, you're aware about where the project is failing in terms of equity, so you can focus on these specific criteria to improve them."
Dr Lazzari said the work is a world-first in standardising how equity in ocean initiatives is measured.
"There was a working group for gathering researchers from all parts in the world that are working on equity or similar topics," she said.
"It was very interdisciplinary group, aiming to create a common understanding of equity in the oceans, as well as a tool to assess and measure it.
"The most interesting thing is that this the first time we can assess the equity of ocean initiatives using a standardised tool, something that was impossible to do before.
Grounded in two years of collaborative research and built for accessibility, the OEI distils 12 core criteria into a simple, Excel-based scoring tool that can be completed in just a few hours.
These criteria span rights, participation, accountability, harms, and benefits. It is designed to help users understand where equity is working, where gaps exist, and what can be done to close them.
Dr Lazzari said the tool can be applied from local initiatives through to global agendas, including efforts to address illegal fishing and other ocean-based activities that are changing marine environments worldwide.
