Veronica Relano is a PhD researcher at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the research group of the Sea Around Us, under the supervision of Dr Daniel Pauly. Her time at different universities and institutes all over the world, including the Universidad de Cadiz, University of Kingston, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand, the Technical University of Munich and the University of British Columbia allowed her to learn and collaborate with multidisciplinary scientists. Living and working in more than 10 countries, made her aware of the many different socio-cultural facets, ways to work with local stakeholders and ecological effects that underpin management of marine resources.

In her research she aims to combine marine biodiversity and social data to overcome the gap in the conservation decision-making framework, considering ecological, economic, and legal aspects, collectively. She is especially interested in MPA management and the extent of protection that MPAs offer to marine and coastal ecosystems. She is also interested in conservation psychology, nudging and in better understanding how to communicate conservation actions to a broader audience to achieve change on the ground. In this regard, her project “Socio-ecological management in the San Antonio Bay MPA (Argentina)” will bring a previously overlooked community’s perspective to the table and raise awareness about the ecological, social and economic value they place on this area of the North of Patagonia: The Marine Protected Area of San Antonio Bay.