Portugal has done much, but will only know if it did well when it starts measuring
Portugal has spent more than three decades cultivating one of Europe's most active cultures of ocean education, yet a landmark global study released on World Ocean Day reveals a quiet paradox at its core: knowing the sea and changing one's relationship to it are not the same thing. Research from the MARE center, embedded in a 250-scholar international work, found that of 114 national ocean literacy initiatives launched since 1990, fewer than a third ever measured whether they moved people to act differently. It is a reminder that awareness, however earnest, does not automatically become stewardship — and that the distance between a lesson learned and a behavior changed may be the most consequential frontier in environmental education.
- Portugal leads Europe in ocean literacy programs, yet the very abundance of initiatives has masked a structural silence: almost no one was asking whether any of it worked.
- Only 30 of 114 initiatives since 1990 measured behavioral impact, leaving decades of effort suspended between intention and evidence.
- Activism and civic engagement were nearly absent from these programs, reducing ocean literacy to an intellectual exercise rather than a call to collective action.
- Living Labs — spaces where scientists, communities, businesses, and policymakers co-create solutions in real coastal environments — are being proposed as the bridge between fragmented knowledge and tangible change.
- A pilot project in artisanal salt marshes revealed that local communities hold deep ecological wisdom but lack the tools and frameworks to transform it into innovation or policy.
- Researchers are now urging Portugal to consolidate its scattered efforts into a unified national strategy before the window of the Ocean Decade closes without measurable results.
On World Ocean Day, the MARE research center released findings that exposed a striking national contradiction: Portugal has become one of Europe's most energetic educators about the ocean, yet almost no one has been checking whether that education changes how people actually behave.
The findings appeared in two studies forming part of a three-volume global work published by Springer Nature in May 2026, drawing on roughly 250 researchers from 42 countries. What MARE uncovered was simultaneously impressive and sobering. Since 1990, Portugal has launched 114 ocean literacy initiatives — Escola Azul, Coastwatch, and dozens more — earning genuine recognition for the dynamism of its programs. Yet fewer than a third of those initiatives ever measured behavioral impact. The rest taught facts without tracking outcomes, operating in a kind of well-meaning vacuum. As researcher Zara Teixeira observed, Portugal has done much, but will only know if it did well once it begins measuring, coordinating, and turning knowledge into action. Notably, activism barely featured in these programs at all, leaving ocean literacy as an intellectual exercise rather than a catalyst for change.
A second study proposed Living Labs as a practical remedy to this fragmentation — open innovation platforms where scientists, citizens, businesses, and policymakers collaborate to design and test solutions in real coastal settings. A pilot project involving 60 stakeholders from artisanal salt marshes between Aveiro and Castro Marim proved instructive: local communities held rich knowledge of their ecosystems but lacked the tools to convert it into innovation, and many had never encountered the Living Lab concept before.
The researchers' conclusion is clear. When science, community, and political will genuinely converge, structural conflicts can ease and new policies can emerge. But that convergence requires deliberate architecture. Portugal's ocean literacy efforts remain powerful in isolation and incoherent as a whole. Without a unified national strategy — one that measures outcomes, integrates activism, and traces a path from knowing to doing — even Europe's most dynamic ocean education risks remaining exactly what it is: inspiring, but incomplete.
On World Ocean Day, as Portugal marked June 8th, a research center called MARE released findings that cut to the heart of a peculiar national contradiction: the country has become one of Europe's most active in teaching people about the ocean, yet almost nobody is checking whether any of it actually changes how people behave.
The alert came wrapped in two scientific studies, chapters from a three-volume global work titled "Ocean Literacy Foundation for the Success of the Ocean Decade," published in May 2026 by Springer Nature. The project drew together roughly 250 researchers from 42 countries. What MARE discovered was both impressive and troubling.
Since 1990, Portugal has launched 114 separate ocean literacy initiatives. The list reads like a catalog of earnest effort: Escola Azul, O MARE Vai à Escola, CIIMAR na Escola, Educar para uma Geração Azul, Coastwatch. The country genuinely leads Europe in the dynamism of these programs. But when researchers examined three decades of work, they found that only 30 of those 114 initiatives—less than a third—had actually measured whether they changed how people act. The rest operated in a kind of theoretical vacuum, teaching facts without tracking outcomes. Zara Teixeira, a researcher at MARE, put it plainly: Portugal has done much, but will only know if it did well when it starts measuring, coordinating, and turning knowledge into action.
The research, conducted by teams from the University of Évora, the University of Lisbon's Institute of Education, the Continental Platform Extension Mission, and the University of Porto's CIIMAR, identified another gap: activism barely figured in these programs. Ocean literacy was becoming an intellectual exercise, not a catalyst for people to actually do something.
To address the fragmentation and the silence between researchers and government, a second study proposed Living Labs as a practical answer. These are open innovation platforms where scientists, businesses, citizens, and policymakers work together to design and test sustainable solutions in real coastal settings. The researchers studied one example: the Quinta Ciência Viva do Sal project, which brought together 60 key figures from artisanal salt marshes between Aveiro and Castro Marim. What emerged was revealing. Local communities possessed deep knowledge of their ecosystems but lacked tools to turn that knowledge into innovation. Many people had never heard of Living Labs, or confused them with simple communication spaces or quick-fix problem-solving forums.
The research suggests that when science, communities, and political institutions converge in these labs, something shifts. Structural conflicts can ease. New public policies can emerge. Knowledge becomes action. But that convergence requires intention and structure. Right now, Portugal's ocean literacy efforts remain scattered—powerful individually but uncoordinated as a whole. The researchers are calling for the country to gather that dispersed energy into a single national strategy, making ocean literacy not just a collection of school programs but a foundational public policy. Without that consolidation, without measurement, without a path from knowing to doing, even the most dynamic ocean education in Europe risks remaining exactly what it is: inspiring but ultimately incomplete.
Citas Notables
Portugal has done much, but will only know if it did well when it starts measuring, coordinating, and turning knowledge into action— Zara Teixeira, MARE researcher
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
So Portugal teaches more people about the ocean than most European countries. Why is that a problem?
Because teaching people facts about the ocean isn't the same as changing what they do. You can know the ocean is in trouble and still throw plastic in the water. Portugal has 114 programs doing this work, but only 30 of them ever checked whether students actually changed their behavior.
That's a massive gap. Why hasn't anyone measured this before?
The programs were built independently, often by passionate educators or researchers. Nobody was coordinating them or asking the hard question: did this work? It's easier to launch a program than to track whether it changed anything.
And the Living Labs idea—how does that fix it?
It brings everyone to the same table. A scientist, a local fisherman, a government official, a business owner—they all work together on a real problem in a real place. The fisherman's knowledge becomes as valuable as the scientist's data. That's when knowledge actually becomes action.
But communities already have that knowledge, right? They live there.
They do. But they've had no way to turn it into policy or innovation. They're isolated. The lab creates a structure for that knowledge to matter officially, not just locally.
So the warning is really about coordination?
Exactly. Portugal has the energy and the programs. What's missing is a unified strategy that measures impact and connects everything to actual policy. Right now it's all scattered light. They need to focus it.