ESI Christmas Lecture and Party

Please note: While the Christmas party will be an in-person event, the talk by Professor Roberts will be hybrid and interested participants outside the ESI can join us on MS Teams to hear him. Please email esidirector@exeter.ac.uk for the link.

Talk title: Dispatches from the global centre of marine biodiversity: creating a viable future for one of the world’s most extraordinary places

Talk abstract: The Bird’s Head Seascape in West Papua forms the heart of the Coral Triangle, making it the centre of the centre of global marine biodiversity. More species exist here than anywhere else in the sea. The Seascape contains a network of marine protected areas built on a foundation of science and brought into being through a textbook collaboration between local communities, NGOs and the national government. After more than a decade of effort, protection is recovering marine life depleted by previous overexploitation, including charismatic animals like sharks, manta rays and turtles. The gains remain fragile in the face of global climate change, but if any coral reefs are to survive the next century, it will be through efforts like this.