Daniel Dunn

University of Queensland, Australia

Dr. Dunn is an interdisciplinary marine conservation ecologist who strives for an integrative approach bringing together ecology, oceanography, conservation, natural resource management and social sciences (particularly with respect to governance). His research focuses on applying ecological theory to develop applied solutions to natural resource management and conservation problems through area-based management across a range of scales. Specifically, his current work centers on understanding: 1) how dynamic management can address mismatches in the scale of resource distribution, resource use and resource management; 2) how social and ecological processes generate pattern in anthropogenic stressors and biodiversity at meso- and macro-scales; and 3) how systematic conservation planning can be scaled up to a global level to inform marine policy beyond national jurisdictions. His work has been pivotal in developing the concept of Dynamic Ocean Management and understanding the status, need and potential for conservation of areas beyond national jurisdiction. He sits on the Science Board of the Global Ocean Biodiversity Initiative (GOBI) and was previously a liaison for the Census of Marine Life to the Secretariat to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In these capacities he has been intimately involved in facilitating and analyzing the description of the CBD’s Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) and is now working to inform the International Seabed Authority’s efforts to identify Areas of Particular Environmental Interest and negotiations over a new international legally binding instrument for the conservation and sustainable use of areas beyond national jurisdiction at the UN.