Environmentalist,
Thought Leader,
and Activist
Dr. Fanny Douvere’s mission is to help transform the way we use and protect the planet’s natural resources while building resilient communities empowered to adapt to a changing climate. Her areas of expertise are:
Ocean
Climate Change
Environment
Protected Areas
Spatial Planning
Diplomacy
FEATURED IN
New York Times
A Victory for Coral: Unesco Removes Belize Reef From Its Endangered List
A&E
Dr Fanny Douvere, Coordinator of UNESCO’s World Heritage Marine Programme Discusses the Future of the World’s Oceans
Outlook India
Australia Manages To Keep ‘World Heritage’ Status For Great Barrier Reef
Wadden Sea World Heritage
MoU with Mauritania: Milestones
BBC Inside Science
Blue Carbon Can’t Wait (Podcast)
“Climate change is the defining crisis of our times. If we humans don’t take care of it, Nature will.”
Dr. Fanny Douvere
WORK
Fanny developed a career in international diplomacy specializing in ocean conservation and climate change. She currently heads UNESCO’s World Heritage Marine Programme. In 2018, she led UNESCO’s negotiations toward the successful removal of the Belize Barrier Reef from the List of World Heritage in Danger. From 2012-2021, she was UNESCO’s lead advisor for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
Through her work, she aligns scientists, NGOs, and decision-makers behind actionable causes which most recently illustrated that marine World Heritage hosts over 20% of the world’s blue carbon assets. With the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, she’s building a global citizen science initiative using environmental DNA to measure climate vulnerability. Previously, she coordinated the first global assessment of the impacts of climate change on UNESCO World Heritage-listed coral reefs and World Heritage in the High Seas.
Prior to that, she co-initiated the global marine spatial planning (MSP) movement starting in 2008 with the publication of the first step-by-step guide on how to implement ecosystem-based management. She served as an advisor on MSP to the United States Council for environmental quality under President Barak Obama and the European Commission. MSP has since been adopted in over 70 countries and is now mandatory across 22 Member States of the European Union through the 2014 MSP Directive.
She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and is an Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
“Accelerated action on climate change on all possible levels, in accordance with the 1.5 degree target under the Paris Agreement for Climate Change, and the recovery of the property from poor water quality are both vital and are urgent to secure the outstanding universal value of the Great Barrier Reef for present and for future generations.”
Dr. Fanny Douvere
PUBLISHED ARTICLES HIGHLIGHTS
Science
Blue Carbon Can’t Wait
Nature
Conservation: The Seas Cannot be Saved on a Budget of Breadcrumbs
Research Gate
The Importance of Marine Spatial Planning in Advancing Ecosystem-Based Sea Use Management
UNESCO
World Heritage in the High Seas: An Idea Whose Time has Come
UNESCO
World Heritage Marine Sites: Managing Effectively the World’s Most iconic Marine Protected Areas
WRITING
Fanny’s work has been featured or quoted in The New York Times, Forbes, Science, Nature, BBC World, and a range of local outlets around the globe. Her work has been referenced over 5,000 times. Most recently, she wrote an Editorial for the journal Science title Why Blue Carbon Can’t Wait.
Her article The Importance of Marine Spatial Planning in Advancing Ecosystem-Based Sea Use Management is widely recognized for pioneering the practical application of ecosystem-based management through marine spatial planning. As part of her Ph.D. degree, she published the book Marine Spatial Planning: Concepts, Current Practice and Linkages to other Management Approaches.
In 2015, she published a global Best Practice Guide on Managing Marine Protected Areas Effectively. The guide brought together a decade of experience working on ocean sustainable development around the world and is now available in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, and Indonesian.
In 2016, she wrote a high-profile plea in the journal Nature titled Why the Ocean Cannot be Saved on a Budget of Breadcrumbs.
SPEAKING
Fanny is tri-lingual and speaks frequently at conferences and events. She brings a unique perspective on both the state of Earth’s biodiversity and what it really takes to protect it. She does so by combining diplomatic skills with day-to-day experience working with local teams and communities across the world.
Having traveled to most of the places she works with, she speaks from first-hand experience in a style that resonates with a multi-cultural audience with which she is accustomed to work. Her views are inspired by the incredible beauty of our planet and a deep belief that humanity and nature will ultimately thrive in harmony.
