Collective intelligence for advancing ocean literacy

Ocean literacy is an understanding of the ocean s influence on us and our influence on the ocean. A lack of ocean literacy presents a significant obstacle for citizens to engage in environmentally sustainable behaviour, and thus is acknowledged as a complex problem that requires deliberative participation and joint-action by stakeholders across domains. The aim of the article is both to demonstrate the value of Collective Intelligence (CI) as a methodological tool to advance and enhance the promotion of environmental literacy, and to share outcomes from using the CI approach. The participatory context behind CI illustrates that working with a range of stakeholders across marine education, outreach, regulation and policy, to debate how to better promote ocean literacy among young people, improves ocean literacy and broadens society s awareness of sustainable marine environments. Findings reveal a hierarchical barrier structure localised to each country, a valuable order of echelon toward environmental change.The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (H2020-BG-2014-1) under grant agreement No. 652644.2020-07-1