Strengthening and Sustaining Marine Socioecological Systems

We are working with community partners in the archipelagos of Belau and Galápagos to identify solutions-oriented research questions to shared challenges. Both island systems are balancing the needs of developing sustainable ecotourism and fishing livelihoods while supporting biodiversity conservation, in a climate-altered landscape. Whereas Belau has millenia of Indigenous ecological knowledge and adaptation practices to draw from, Galápagos was only recently settled by human populations. Their differing human histories create distinct conditions for meeting these needs through learning, collective action, and place connection.