Networking Friday with David Obura (CORDIO East Africa)

On February 12th, 2021, 1-2 PM UTC, we had David Obura, Founding Director of CORDIO East Africa. In this talk David will outline how coral reef biodiversity observation and monitoring networks, and networks of communities, practitioners and scientists engaged in coral reefs, may provide a foundation for the multiscale decision-making that will be needed to give reefs the best future possible. As a ‘canary in the coal mine’ for climate change, learning from coral reefs may also provide signposts towards sustainability relevant to other ecosystems that are critical for people and planet, from local up to global levels. The moderator was Ruy K. P. Kikuchi, full Professor at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Brazil and fellow of the National Counsel for the Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

Speaker

David Obura

David Obura

David Obura is a Founding Director of CORDIO East Africa, a knowledge organization supporting sustainability of coral reef and marine systems in the Western Indian Ocean. CORDIO takes research to management and policy, builds capacity, and works with stakeholders, managers and policy makers. David’s primary research is on coral reef resilience, in particular to climate change, and the biogeography of the Indian Ocean. David has also played regional and global roles in the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, is a member of the GOOS Biology and Ecosystem Panel and GEOBON MBON, and Chairs the IUCN Coral Specialist Group.

David works at the boundary between science and action with a focus on developing country contexts where conservation and development need to come together. He works from the local scale, with communities and protected area organizations where ecological degradation impacts people directly, through to national, regional and global scales, where decisions are made affecting sustainability up to planetary scales. As a result of the Covid pandemic, 2020 and 2021 have emerged as the two years when the global community is suddenly aware of planetary-scale vulnerability, and at the same time global conventions are making significant decisions on the next ten years for biodiversity, climate and sustainable development.

Moderator

Ruy K. P. Kikuchi

Ruy K. P. Kikuchi – R.K.P.K. is Full Professor for Stratigraphy and Carbonate Sedimentology at Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), Salvador, Brazil and fellow of the National Counsel for the Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). His main research interests are the impacts of global changes in reef ecology and coral calcification. He also is interested in the use of corals as paleoceanographic proxies. He is the leader of the Reef and coralline ecosystems Working Group and also of the oil spill impacts Working Group of the National Institute of Science and Technology for the Tropical Marine Environment (INCT AmbTropic).

We will continue with the Networking Fridays during the next months. More information about future sessions as well as presentations and videos from previous sessions can be found here. Twitter Hashtag: #netfridays. Expect some very exciting afternoons, or mornings or evenings, depending on where you are…

If you need any additional information please send an email to Jose Luiz Moutinho.