The Estuarine Ecological Knowledge Network (EEKN) is an initiative of the Center for Human-Environmental Research (CHER), which has been endorsed by the United Nations Ocean Decade Program and the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. The EEKN is designed to utilize the everyday experiences and traditional ecological knowledge of coastal communities in informing scientific research and policy decisions concerning Earth's key estuaries. The EEKN is designed to create a dispersed network of community observers, who will record and transmit information about local ecological conditions that they encounter. The EEKN also works to document and preserve the knowledge of indigenous peoples and encourage the participation of under-represented groups in marine science and management.

In conjunction with CHER, the EEKN is currently beginning a pilot program in Southeast Louisiana, along the Gulf of Mexico coast in the U.S. This pilot program, which covers the Barataria, Mississippi River, and Breton Sound basins, involves working with coastal fishing communities in developing new channels in communicating with scientists and policy makers concerning the health and productivity of estuarine coastal wetlands. This program is also designed to give coastal fishing communities a greater voice in speaking back to major policy decisions that affect their environmental and economic contexts.

The EEKN is also making plans to expand to future field sites around the world, including the Rio Grande (U.S./Mexico), Mekong (Vietnam), Guaíba (Brazil), and Danube (Romania/Ukraine) deltas/estuaries. In this respect, our goal is to develop a replicable model for using the ecological knowledge possessed by coastal fishing communities in enhancing the wellbeing of estuaries, which are crucial to the overall health and productivity of Earth's oceans.