- Equity
- Small-scale fisheries
- Blue economy
- Human well-being
- Marine social-ecological systems
- Knowledge co-production
- Ocean stewardship
At Stockholm Resilience Centre, Colette Wabnitz contributes to advancing ocean stewardship and equity through three key initiatives.
Together with Albert Norström, she co-leads work supported by the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance on gender and fisheries, including 1) the co-production of country fact sheets that highlight women’s contributions across fisheries value chains and examine barriers and enablers to their empowerment and 2) a cross-country analysis of gender integration in fisheries governance. A new initiative funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in Mexico and Chile will document women’s lived experiences with climate change through ethical, participatory visual storytelling and convene a high-level policy dialogue to inform gender-responsive adaptation.
As part the SeaBOS science team, she supports efforts to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and modern slavery. She also serves as science lead for the West Coast Africa keystone project, working with companies to identify human rights and IUU fishing risks in key supply chains.
Additionally, she collaborates on Jean-Baptiste Jouffray's project examining sand mining’s impacts and advancing systemic, equitable, and sustainable approaches to its use.
Colette Wabnitz is a transdisciplinary marine scientist with over 20 years of international experience at the intersection of social-ecological systems, equity, and sustainability. Alongside her Affiliate Researcher role at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, she currently is Lead Scientist at the Center for Ocean Solutions and Research Faculty at the Institute for Oceans and Fisheries at the University of British Columbia.
Her professional journey has included roles such as a Fisheries Scientist at the Pacific Community (SPC) and collaborative work with communities, governments, businesses, NGOs, researchers and other stakeholders on fisheries and ocean-related activities across Canada, the Caribbean, Middle East, South Pacific, and West Africa. These experiences have informed her commitment to inclusive, context-sensitive, and impact-oriented science that centres diverse voices in the pursuit of just and sustainable ocean futures.
Colette Wabnitz holds a BSc in Biology and Environmental Sciences from McGill University, an MSc in Tropical Coastal Management from the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and a PhD in Geography from the University of British Columbia.
Growing up in the Middle East and West Africa exposed Colette Wabnitz to international development work from an early age, sparking an interest in understanding social-ecological system complexities. Her research sits at the interface of people and the environment, grounded in collaborative learning and stakeholder-driven approaches. She is committed to research that addresses real-world problems identified by those most affected by environmental and social change and to co-develop and implement solutions that counter habitat degradation, support conservation and sustainable use of natural resources, and support community resilience and well-being in the face of change.
Awards and achievements
- Winner of the Falling Walls Women’s Impact Award
Supervision
Key publications
- Österblom*, H., Wabnitz*, C. C., Tladi*, D., Allison, E. H., Arnaud-Haond, S., Bebbington, J., ... & Selim, S. A. (2023). Towards ocean equity. In The Blue Compendium: From knowledge to action for a sustainable ocean economy (pp. 485-521). Cham: Springer International Publishing. * co-leads
- Hanich*, Q., Wabnitz*, C. C., Ota, Y., Amos, M., Donato-Hunt, C., & Hunt, A. (2018). Small-scale fisheries under climate change in the Pacific Islands region. Marine Policy, 88, 279-284. * co-leads
- Wabnitz, C. C., Naylor, R. L., Smith, N., Tuqa, A., & Leape, J. (2023). Strengthening the role of blue foods in coastal Pacific food systems. New Zealand Economic Papers, 57(2), 78-86.
- Crona, B. I., Wassénius, E., Jonell, M., Koehn, J. Z., Short, R., Tigchelaar, M., ... & Wabnitz, C. C. (2023). Four ways blue foods can help achieve food system ambitions across nations. Nature, 616(7955), 104-112.
- Selig, E. R., Nakayama*, S., Wabnitz*, C. C., Österblom, H., Spijkers, J., Miller, N. A., ... & Decker Sparks, J. L. (2022). Revealing global risks of labor abuse and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Nature communications, 13(1), 1612. * contributed equally
- Blasiak, R., Jouffray, J. B., Wabnitz, C. C., Sundström, E., & Österblom, H. (2018). Corporate control and global governance of marine genetic resources. Science advances, 4(6), eaar5237.
