Marine litter – outreaching the youngsters

Abstract

Planning has mainly focus on land, however new challenges arise from environmental planning in the sea. MARLISCO - Marine Litter in Europe's Seas: Social Awareness and Co-responsibility aims to raise public awareness, facilitate dialogue and promote co-responsibility among the different actors towards a joint vision for sustainable management of marine litter in European seas. By developing innovative mechanisms and tools, it targets to effectively engage, inform and empower society, reaching the widest possible audience. Within this project a Video Contest was launched to encourage and provide the opportunity for youngsters to get in touch with the issue of marine litter and share their visions with a broader public. Youngsters were invited to develop and produce a short video expressing their views about marine litter, becoming agents of societal change. This challenge was taken by schools, as a curricular or parallel activity, approached from several or multiple disciplines. It has promoted critical thinking and active citizenship regarding a complex problem that affects everyone and is of the responsibility of all. In this communication we present and explore the methodology and results of the video contest in Portugal within the several European countries, exploring the lessons learned.