Faculty Research Fellow Les Kaufman Attends Annual Pew Marine Fellows Meeting

Les Kaufman, a Professor in the Department of Biology and a Faculty Research Fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, recently attended the annual meeting of the Pew Marine Fellows in Hilo, Hawaii.

At the meeting, Prof. Kaufman presented on the progress made by the Coral Restoration Consortium, a NOAA-led learning and practice network for coral reef stewardship and restoration around the world; the future of the Pew Marine Collaborative projects on ecosystem-based management of the greater Biscayne Bay ecosystem and Miami-Dade economy; and the importance of viewing ecological restoration on coral reefs not merely in terms of the individual coral colonies, but rather through the lens of restoring the ecosystem services of shoreline protection, biodiversity maintenance, food production, and livelihood support.

The Pew Marine Fellows program brings together a group of leading marine conservation natural and social scientists, lawyers, and artists. Prof. Kaufman first became affiliated with the program when it was created 30 years ago.

At the Pardee Center, Prof. Kaufman leads the Coupled Human and Natural Systems (CHANS) research program, which investigates how governance, social, and economic systems are intricately connected to natural systems, and the trade-offs that confront those making resource management decisions. Specifically, this work explores the relationship between biodiversity and human well being, food-energy-water systems dynamics, and recovery of coral reef systems. The research encompasses four geographic areas: Cambodia (Tonle Sap and the Mekong Delta), East Africa (Lake Victoria), South Florida and Belize (the tropical west Atlantic and Caribbean Basin), and the Gulf of Maine.