A new Ocean Equity Index gives governments, companies and communities a simple way to score how fairly ocean projects treat coastal people. The free tool aims to keep Indigenous and marginalized groups from being left behind as ocean development accelerates.
When an offshore wind farm, port expansion or marine protected area is planned, coastal communities often have the most at stake — but the least say. A new tool aims to change that by giving people a clear way to measure whether ocean projects are truly fair.
An international team of researchers has developed the Ocean Equity Index, a user-friendly scorecard that anyone can use to assess how well an ocean-related policy, project or program respects human rights, shares benefits and includes affected communities in decisions.
The tool, created by the Blue Justice Working Group and supported by France’s Foundation for Research on Biodiversity, is designed to bring questions of justice and inclusion into the heart of ocean decision-making, from local fishing villages to global treaties.
David Gill, an assistant professor of marine science and conservation in the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University who collaborated on the project, noted the stakes for coastal communities are rising fast.
“Around the world, coastal communities are experiencing unprecedented environmental, economic and social change. And too often, those who are already marginalized bear the heaviest burdens — from pollution to lost livelihoods. But when the rights, voices and well-being of marginalized groups are genuinely prioritized in decision‑making, we see more equitable outcomes for these communities,” Gill said in a news release.
The Ocean Equity Index is meant to help make that shift from good intentions to concrete action.
“The Ocean Equity Index offers a practical, evidence‑based way to help decision-makers to better ensure their efforts truly support the coastal communities they aim to serve,” Gill added.
Three years in the making, the index is rooted in research on environmental justice, conservation and ecosystem services. The team’s work is published in the journal Nature.
At its core, the index uses a set of standardized questions to examine key dimensions of equity — including human rights, accountability, and potential harms and benefits — through an ocean lens. It is designed to be flexible enough to apply to almost any ocean initiative, whether it is a small community-led project or a multinational development.
“The Ocean Equity Index is based on 12 criteria that define equity in a robust way, but it’s short enough that each one of those criteria is scored between zero and three, for a total of 36 points,” added first author Jessica Blythe, an associate professor in the Environmental Sustainability Research Center at Brock University in Canada.
Each criterion is scored qualitatively, based on how well a project or policy meets that aspect of equity. The scores are then added up to give an overall picture of how equitable the initiative is — and where it falls short.
Blythe emphasized that the team wanted the index to be accessible to people who are not experts in law or social science.
“It’s a qualitative approach that is trying to strike a balance between rigor and usability. You don’t need training to use it, and you can download it for free as an Excel spreadsheet and use it offline,” she said.
Because it is free and does not require specialized software, the Ocean Equity Index can be used in many different settings.
Indigenous peoples and local communities can adapt the questions to their own context and use the index to evaluate projects that affect their territories and livelihoods. That could help them push for changes, or hold governments and companies accountable when promises about participation or benefit-sharing are not kept.
Foundations and other funders could use the index to screen grant applications and investments, favoring initiatives that score higher on equity. Private companies planning offshore energy, tourism or shipping projects could use it to identify social risks early and build stronger relationships with nearby communities.
Governments, meanwhile, could apply the tool when designing new policies or reporting on their commitments to fair and sustainable ocean use.
The index arrives at a pivotal moment for global ocean governance. Countries are racing to protect biodiversity and expand the so-called blue economy, which includes industries such as fisheries, offshore energy and seabed mining. At the same time, new international agreements are trying to ensure that conservation and development do not deepen existing inequalities.
One major milestone is the United Nations’ Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, often called the high seas treaty. The agreement, which was recently enacted, aims to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity in international waters beyond 200 nautical miles from national coastlines.
“In this context, individual nations who have signed on to global agreements, including the high seas treaty, could use the Ocean Equity Index to track progress,” Blythe added.
The Blue Justice Working Group has already tested the tool in several pilot projects. According to the researchers, private enterprises that participated found it useful for understanding what equity means in practice and how to incorporate equity goals into their business plans.
Blythe noted that, informally, many of these early users reported that the process of working through the questions changed how they thought about their responsibilities to coastal communities and the environment.
“This is anecdotal, but when we’ve worked with these groups, they’ve said that using the tool has really helped them understand what equity means and how they can actually take action. That kind of feedback has been really encouraging,” she said.
Beyond individual projects, the researchers hope the Ocean Equity Index will help shift the culture of ocean governance so that fairness is treated as a core requirement, not an afterthought.
For students, early-career professionals and community advocates, the index also doubles as a learning tool. Working through its 12 criteria can introduce users to the basic principles of environmental justice and human rights in the ocean context.
As coastal communities face rising seas, stronger storms, changing fish stocks and growing industrial pressure, tools like the Ocean Equity Index may become increasingly important. They offer a way to ask, in a structured and transparent way, who wins, who loses and who gets a voice when decisions about the ocean are made.
The tool is available for free download at OceanEquityIndex.org.