Anna Lou Abatayo receives NWO XS grant to study marine protection in the Coral Triangle

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Dr. Anna Lou Abatayo has received an Open Competition SSH XS grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) for her project Why Here? Drivers of Marine Protection in the Coral Triangle. The XS scheme, part of NWO’s Open Competition for the Social Sciences and Humanities, supports bold, curiosity-driven ideas that have the potential to open new avenues of research, allowing researchers to test new concepts quickly.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have become one of the world’s most important tools for conserving marine biodiversity. Yet despite their rapid expansion, surprisingly little is known about why protected areas are established in some locations but not in others. Most research asks what MPAs achieve once they are in place. This project addresses an earlier and often overlooked question: how conservation policies are selected in the first place.

The project focuses on the Coral Triangle, the world’s most biodiverse marine region. By combining harmonised spatial datasets, economic indicators and surveys of conservation practitioners, it will examine whether MPAs are systematically established where ecological value is highest, or whether political and economic considerations also shape where protection ends up. The findings will provide new evidence on how conservation priorities translate into spatial protection, and can help policymakers design more effective and equitable marine conservation strategies.

The project builds on EconSES research on environmental governance, natural resource management and biodiversity conservation, and complements the group’s work on marine systems and conservation policy.

EconSES congratulates Dr. Abatayo on the grant. We look forward to sharing results from the project as the research develops.

Grants | EconSES

Anna Lou Abatayo receives NWO XS grant to study marine protection in the Coral Triangle