• Energy Research

Stakeholders’ support is essential for the effective and successful implementation of policies that prioritize enhancing and preserving ocean and coastal ecosystems. However, cross-national studies examining factors influencing the stakeholders’ policy support are still lacking. The current study aimed to provide preliminary evidence on factors (e.g., socio-demographic factors, country income level, and perceived impacts of marine and coastal ecosystems) that affect stakeholders’ endorsement of a policy centered on preserving marine and coastal ecosystems. To conduct the study, we applied the Bayesian Mindsponge Framework (BMF) on a dataset of 709 stakeholders from 42 countries generated by MaCoBioS – a research project funded by the European Commission Horizon 2020. The results showed no differences in policy endorsement levels across stakeholders with different ages, education, and country income level. However, female stakeholders tended to support the policy prioritizing ocean protection stronger than their male counterparts. Stakeholders perceiving the impacts of marine and coastal ecosystem preservation on human well-being, climate and weather, and climate change reduction also tended to support the policy more strongly. Meanwhile, the perceived impacts of ocean and coastal ecosystems on global and local economies had an ambiguous effect on stakeholders’ policy support. Based on these findings, we suggest that raising awareness and knowledge of stakeholders can help improve their support for ocean and coastal preservation policies. Moreover, it is necessary to concentrate more on communicating the adverse consequences induced by the ocean and coastal ecosystems’ loss (e.g., climate change and health) and concentrate less on the economic aspects.