Amelia Wenger

Amelia Wenger is a CBCS Research Fellow at UQ and an Associate Conservation Scientist with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Her research identifies and critically assesses management gaps and conservation solutions to benefit marine ecosystems and people who depend on them. An interdisciplinary approach that emphasises the ecological and social connectivity of systems and the need for cross-sector collaboration is paramount to all of her research. This approach ensures that she is producing the knowledge and tools that communities, conservation organizations, and governments need to balance conservation and development goals. Her current research agenda focuses on 1) ridge to reef decision-making, 2) improving coastal and marine management outcomes, and 3) understanding linkages between ecosystem health and human health. As an NGO scientist, Amelia provides technical resources and analytical capacity to the Wildlife Conservation Society’s projects funded through the Vibrant Oceans Initiative. She also supports WCS’s global coral reef social and ecological monitoring program.

A central tenet of my research program is to collaborate effectively to produce the knowledge and tools that communities, conservation organizations, and governments need to balance conservation and development goals. I have a proven track-record nationally and internationally of achieving this aim since arriving at UQ. As an NGO scientist, I work closely with country programs to support their conservation activities on the ground. My research on the effects of dredging on marine fisheries led to the world’s first evidence-based management guidelines for protecting coastal fisheries from dredging activities and were developed in close partnership with the Western Australian government. My research on understanding the impacts of logging on downstream resources in the Solomon Islands is being used by local managers and stakeholders as a way to garner support for the creation of the largest protected area in the history of the country.