Scoping meetings with a wide range of academic, community and marine stakeholders including (from bottom right clockwise): academics and researchers based in the UK; UNESCO officials, NGOs and government representatives at a State Parties session in Paris; community leaders at the Ilha de Mozambique; the Bidi Wa Kasi women’s group in Mida Creek, Kenya; ocean scientists at the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute; lawyers from the Nairobi Law School; as well as school children in Kilwa, Tanzania (centre).