The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has announced that Dr. Nathan Bennett will be the Chair of the People and the Ocean Specialist Group.
Nathan J. Bennett
Dr. Nathan Bennett is a Research Associate in the OceanCanada Partnership at the University of British Columbia (Canada)’s Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, and with the FishMPABlue2 Project at the Université Côte d’Azur (France). In addition, Dr. Bennett is affiliated with the Center for Ocean Solutions (Stanford), the Community Conservation Research Network, and the Too Big To Ignore Project, and has consulted for various organizations such as the Canadian Wildlife Federation, The Nature Conservancy (Mexico), and the UN FAO.
Dr. Bennett’s research interests broadly focus on the interactions between humans and the environment. He has published more than 50 papers on topics related to the human dimensions of conservation, marine protected areas, small-scale fisheries, community development, adaptation to global environmental change, and ocean governance from research in North America, Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Europe. He is also an active member of the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Chair of the Oceans and People Specialist Group of the Commission on Ecological, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP) of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In 2018, Bennett received the Early Career Conservationist award from the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB).
The objective of the People and the Ocean Specialist Group is to promote the need to understand and integrate the voices, visions, rights, and livelihood needs of coastal peoples and island nations into policies and practices related to the conservation and management of the oceans. The group connects the various marine programs situated within the IUCN, including the Marine and Polar Program and the Marine Theme of the World Commission on Protected area, and liaises with IUCN member organizations that are engaged in ocean conservation, management, and development issues.
Tags: Awards, IOF Research Associates, Nathan Bennett, Political ecology