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. 2020 Jul 14;17(14):5078.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph17145078.

The Roses Ocean and Human Health Chair: A New Way to Engage the Public in Oceans and Human Health Challenges

Josep Lloret  1 , Rafael Abós-Herràndiz  2 , Sílvia Alemany  3 , Rosario Allué  4 , Joan Bartra  5 , Maria Basagaña  6 , Elisa Berdalet  7 , Mònica Campàs  8 , Arnau Carreño  1 , Montserrat Demestre  7 , Jorge Diogène  8 , Eva Fontdecaba  2 , Mireia Gascon  9 , Sílvia Gómez  10 , Angel Izquierdo  11 , Lluïsa Mas  12 , Montse Marquès  13 , Juan Pedro-Botet  14 , Maria Pery  15 , Francesc Peters  7 , Xavier Pintó  16 , Marta Planas  1 , Ana Sabatés  7 , Joan San  1 , Anna Sanchez-Vidal  17 , Martí Trepat  12 , Cristina Vendrell  2 , Lora E Fleming  18
Affiliations

The Roses Ocean and Human Health Chair: A New Way to Engage the Public in Oceans and Human Health Challenges

Josep Lloret et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Involving and engaging stakeholders is crucial for studying and managing the complex interactions between marine ecosystems and human health and wellbeing. The Oceans and Human Health Chair was founded in the town of Roses (Catalonia, Spain, NW Mediterranean) in 2018, the fruit of a regional partnership between various stakeholders, and for the purpose of leading the way to better health and wellbeing through ocean research and conservation. The Chair is located in an area of the Mediterranean with a notable fishing, tourist, and seafaring tradition and is close to a marine reserve, providing the opportunity to observe diverse environmental conditions and coastal and maritime activities. The Chair is a case study demonstrating that local, collaborative, transdisciplinary, trans-sector, and bottom-up approaches offer tremendous opportunities for engaging coastal communities to help support long-lasting solutions that benefit everyone, and especially those living by the sea or making their living from the goods and services provided by the sea. Furthermore, the Chair has successfully integrated most of its experts in oceans and human health from the most prestigious institutions in Catalonia. The Chair focuses on three main topics identified by local stakeholders: Fish and Health; Leisure, Health, and Wellbeing; and Medicines from the Sea. Led by stakeholder engagement, the Chair can serve as a novel approach within the oceans and human health field of study to tackle a variety of environmental and public health challenges related to both communicable and non-communicable diseases, within the context of sociocultural issues. Drawing on the example provided by the Chair, four principles are established to encourage improved participatory processes in the oceans and human health field: bottom-up, "think local", transdisciplinary and trans-sectorial, and "balance the many voices".

Keywords: citizen science; marine conservation; participatory process; public health.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Map of the area where the Oceans and Human Health (OHH) Chair is implemented in the northwestern Mediterranean, showing the City of Roses and the marine protected area of Cap de Creus.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The fundamentals of the Oceans and Human Health Chair in Roses.
Figure 3
Figure 3
General workflow of the design and development of stakeholder involvement, engagement, and participation.
Figure 4
Figure 4
The current and emerging OHH issues identified by the Chair during the implementation phase: health benefits (left) and health risks (right).
Figure 5
Figure 5
The relevant principles resulting from the OHH Chair to foster new participatory process in oceans and human health.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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