Local coastal communities and their ways of knowing. Ocean tales from the past and looking into the future

This chapter spells out some of the philosophical, legal, scientific aspects behind the blanket term ‘local knowledge’. Starting with the UN Biological Diversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement, we elucidate three main varieties of local knowledges and their inter-relations, building on Massimi’s (2025) “Local knowledges and the right to participate in science”. We present two historical examples of local knowledges by coastal communities in the Hebrides, Scotland, and in the Jeju Island, South Korea. We then apply these conceptual distinctions to bear on a hypothetical scenario where all three varieties are all at play in relation to the use of marine biological resources. This paves the way to a discussion of injustices in how local knowledges are often reductively identified and severed in scientific narratives and a further discussion of intellectual property rights in relation to local knowledges. The chapter ends by discussing some possible implications for ongoing debates concerning the implementation of the BBNJ Agreement.