Guardians of Gaia – Mare Nostrum

Guardians of Gaia is a global programme spanning terrestrial, freshwater, island, and marine environments, grounded in the belief that effective conservation must be both transgenerational and transdisciplinary. Developed by Gaia First as an official UN Ocean Decade Action, supported by UNESCO and under the patronage of the French National Commission for UNESCO, it connects ecosystem health with the cultural, scientific, educational, and governance systems that shape how environments are understood, managed, and protected.

Its maritime branch, Mare Nostrum, represents the first large-scale deployment phase, combining a network of coastal hubs with a Mediterranean sailing expedition. The hub model is designed to be adaptable across diverse ecological and cultural contexts, serving as territorial platforms where youth, communities, institutions, researchers, knowledge holders, and practitioners collaborate on conservation, cultural transmission, and environmental governance.

Across all territories, the hubs bring together locally anchored as well as harmonised protocols, including eDNA monitoring, underwater acoustics, invasive species tracking, citizen-science pollution mapping and more, contributing to a shared global knowledge ecosystem while strengthening intergenerational and intercultural transmission.

The hubs address a structural imbalance: youth and living closest to the most vital ecosystems often hold deep ecological knowledge, yet remain distant from academic science, technical infrastructures, institutional networks, and decision-making spaces. By integrating scientific tools, governance literacy,and cultural knowledge within the territories themselves, the programme creates the conditions for agency, stewardship, and leadership. Through the Guardians App and the Earth Twin open-science platform, local actions become globally visible contributions within a living network of shared knowledge.

With a strong commitment to gender equity and girls’ leadership, the programme inspires vocations in environmental science, conservation, cultural heritage, and governance. The 2027 Mediterranean expedition aboard the Pelican of London will connect the Mediterranean hubs, bringing together 40 young people for hands-on fieldwork, cultural, environmental and science diplomacy. By linking these territories through a shared journey, the expedition will celebrate, amplify and extend the impact of the these hubs, strengthening their role within a wider regional and global ecosystem of action.