Sessions > Opening session

Welcome remarks

10:00 - 10:20

Frédéric Chlous

Professor of Anthropology, Deputy Director for Research, Expertise, Promotion, and Education at the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN)

Pr. Chlous conducts research on human-nature relations, coastal/marine space management, and participatory science. She analyzes user representations and participatory mechanisms in environmental governance. Pr. Chlous is Chair of the Scientific Council of the French Biodiversity Agency, and Coordinator of the Particip-arc network (cultural research and participatory science).

Gilles Kleitz

Deputy Director for Science and Head of Sustainability Sciences at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD)

Dr. Kleitz has worked for thirty-five years on biodiversity conservation, its social and political dimensions, and sustainability issues. He has conducted research, policies and projects in different countries, including France, for research institutions, governments, non-governmental organizations, development banks and UNCBD secretariat. He has been advisor to several ministers, participated in international negotiations, and headed the French Guyana National Park and the French National Parks’ board. He is as well president of the Scientific Committee of CIRAD and of IUCN’s French Committee’s protected areas commission. Gilles KLEITZ is a Senior Civil Engineer, MSc (Agronomy) and holds a doctorate in Development sciences from IDS/Sussex University. He is Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and holds the Palmes académiques.

Ariadna Burgos 

Researcher at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD)

Ariadna is an ethnoecologist. Her research focuses on developing transdisciplinary frameworks and tools to assess the dynamics, vulnerability, and sustainability of artisanal marine invertebrate fisheries. She has conducted in-depth fieldwork in Indigenous communities in Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia. Ariadna is the principal investigator of the ANR-funded project MARIN, which integrates ethnoecology, geography, ecology, microbiology and ecotoxicology to characterize the status and evolution of artisanal marine invertebrate fisheries. She also co-leads the scientific committee of the exhibition “Shells” scheduled to open at the French National Museum of Natural History in 2029.

Keynotes

10:20 - 10:45

Philippe Bouchet

Professor emeritus, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), Department of Systematics and Evolution, Paris, France

Pr. Philippe Bouchet's interests are with the exploration and description of biodiversity, especially marine invertebrates. He launched "Our Planet Reviewed", an initiative to boost species discovery that has become the gold standard of biodiversity surveys and led a multi-disciplinary programme on modern invertebrate extinctions. Pr. Bouchet authored major monographs, and has described over 700 new species of molluscs. He is active in promoting the involvement of citizen scientists in marine biodiversity exploration and discovery, and in programmes to produce global authority lists. Pr. Bouchet is recipient of Marine Sciences Prize, French Academy of Sciences, 2001 and Mottart Prize, French Academy of Science, 2016.

Alexander Mawyer 

Director of the Center for Pacific Islands Studies, Chair of the Department of Pacific Islands Studies and Professor in Pacific Studies at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa

Dr. Mawyer holds a BA from Amherst College, MAs from the University of Hawaiʻi and the University of Chicago, and a doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Chicago. With nearly 30 years of field research in French Polynesia, his interests include language and space in Oceanic linguistics, biocultural indicators and dynamics, multidimensional wellbeing, conservation and sovereignty, and marine resource governance. From 2016 to 2022, he served as editor for The Contemporary Pacific and he currently sits on the Editorial Board of the University of Hawai’i Press.