Marine Conservation | EconSES

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.

Maite den Butter wins the REMagine Award for best master’s thesis in economics

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Maite den Butter, a graduate of the MSc Economics of Sustainability (MME-D) programme at Wageningen University, has won a Dutch REMagine Award for the best master’s thesis in economics and business. The REMagine Awards reward ideas for a fairer and more inclusive future, and Maite’s thesis won in the category “Broad Perspectives on Prosperity”.

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are among the most widely used tools for conserving marine biodiversity. Much of the existing research focuses on their ecological benefits, but far less is known about how they affect the people who live alongside them. Maite’s thesis addresses this gap by examining how the establishment of MPAs shapes the livelihoods and well-being of coastal communities in Indonesia.

Using household survey data, Maite examined how communities living near long-established MPAs in Papua and West Papua fared after conservation interventions were introduced. Her analysis looked at livelihoods, local economic opportunities and overall community welfare, contributing to a growing body of work on the human dimensions of marine conservation.

The thesis was supervised by Dr. Anna Lou Abatayo and Dr. Andries Richter. It connects directly to EconSES research on marine systems, conservation policy and the social-ecological dynamics of resource management, where bringing together environmental and social outcomes, and economic and behavioural perspectives, is central to understanding how conservation works in practice.

EconSES congratulates Maite on this recognition of her work. We look forward to seeing how she continues to contribute to research on sustainable ocean governance and marine conservation. More information about the award is available on the REMagine Award website.