Dr Nina Rivers is a marine anthropologist and environmental educator specializing in knowledge integration (how diverse knowledge systems and disciplines can inform ocean governance) and participatory processes in ocean governance. For the past five years she has focused on co-designing and piloting equitable marine spatial planning (MSP) processes in South Africa through the Algoa Bay Project at Nelson Mandela University and through the One Ocean Hub research programme. She is also part of a team developing an MSP tool for the northern Mozambique Channel and has also worked in Kenya and Madagascar.
Nina’s vision for WIOMSA is three-fold: first, to encourage increased knowledge exchange between South Africa and other western Indian Ocean countries. Second, is the need to support increased capacity and professional development among marine and coastal practitioners and implementers to learn how to respond to ocean governance challenges critically. Third, she would like to see WIOMSA support more qualitative marine research by social scientists in the region as both the interest and the need is growing to understand the cultural, social, economic and political structures that drive ocean governance challenges.