Erasmus Mundus Students at LOICZ IPO

Carlos Francisco Castellanos Perez Bolde Carlos Francisco Castellanos Perez Bolde

Native from Mexico, and after attending lectures at top Universities in several European countries, currently I write my Erasmus Mundus-Water and Coastal Management master’s dissertation at the LOICZ International Projects Office in the GKSS, a German Helmholtz research center.
Derived from LOICZ Priority Topic 3, Linking Governance and Science in Coastal Regions, my project aims to identify and synthesize the different approaches to coastal governance in Integrated Coastal Management efforts in Latin America, including the Governance Baselines methodology, an approach recognized and accepted by international organizations, governments and the academy, that deals with human behavior within communities linking institutions, markets, the society, science and communication for generating and improving governance conditions and strategies. At least two national ICM policies incorporate experiences resulting from Governance Baselines! Because every place’s historic, cultural, socioeconomic and politic background and present situation render it unique, four main points are being considered: 1) The major coastal issues addressed, 2) the ICM projects’ and programs’ focus, 3) their evolution over time and by geographic situation, and, 4) their outcomes. My name is Carlos Francisco Castellanos Perez Bolde, and I am very grateful to Erasmus Mundus, the Universities of Plymouth, Cadiz and Algarve, LOICZ, the GKSS, and the program’s lecturers and supervisors –without neglecting colleagues, classmates and staff that enriched it– for allowing

Christina De Souza Christina De Souza

My name is Christina de Souza, and I am from Goa, India. I have a postgraduate degree in microbiology. I got interested in environmental science while working on a research project in my home university, and so I applied for the European Masters in Water and Coastal Management. I am currently working on my thesis for this programme at the LOICZ International Project Office in Geesthacht, Germany. For my thesis I have as my supervisors Dr. Alice Newton from the University of the Algarve, Portugal, and Dr. Dennis Swaney, from Cornell University, USA. My thesis comes under research theme 4 of LOICZ, which is about the biogeochemical cycles that occur in coastal and shelf waters. The focal point of theme 4 is the cycling of nutrients, especially carbon, and sediments in coastal and shelf waters. Benthic processes are recognised as being especially important because of their influence on ecosystems in these waters and in the global biogeochemical cycles. My aim is to familiarise myself with the research that has been conducted in this aspect in the various projects under this theme. Also I would comparatively study sets of nutrient budget data from coastal systems from a developed and a developing country. I hope that this will give me insight into the management of such systems and what can be done to further them.

Clarissa Cavalheiro Skrepnek Clarissa Cavalheiro Skrepnek

My name is Clarissa Cavalheiro Skrepnek and I am from Brazil. I have a bachelor degree in Oceanography and a postgraduation degree in Environmental Management. I am currently an Erasmus Mundus student of the Joint European Masters in Water and Coastal Management where I am developing my master thesis in LOICZ IPO, Institute of Coastal Research, GKSS.
The theme of my master thesis is included in the LOICZ Scientific Theme V, Towards Coastal System Sustainability by Managing Land-Ocean Interactions. I am being supervised by Prof. Alice Newton from the University of Algarve and chair of LOICZ and by Prof. Jozef Pacyna from the Norwegian Institute for Air Research. The aim of this theme is to promote sustainable development in the coastal region through the management of the interactions between the human activities (industry, commerce, government and civil society itself) and coastal ecosystems. That means the development of economic activities, and the exploitation of natural resources to meet the needs of the current generation without compromising the ability to meet the needs of future generations. My project intends to review the progress of projects affiliated to LOICZ in relation with my theme. Therefore, I intend to study the management options proposed by each project and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of them. Through this I will be able to promote good solutions for sustainable coastal management. My main objective in this master thesis is to learn more about sustainable development and deliver science that is useful to the coastal management and promote the sustainable development.

Jonelle René Jones Jonelle René Jones

Hello! My name is Jonelle Jones, and I come from the twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. At the LOICZ IPO, I will be working on my thesis for completion of the Joint European Masters in Water and Coastal Management master’s programme. My work falls under the LOICZ Scientific Theme III: Human influences in river basin-coastal zone interactions. More specifically, my paper will include an evaluation of the role of the LOICZ-Basins approach in coastal zone management and will be done under the guidance of SSC member Juan Restrepo of Columbia. I currently hold an undergraduate degree in Environmental and Natural Resource Management with Entrepreneurship from the University of the West Indies. This course of study was quite interdisciplinary and provided a good base for branching off into any specific area of environmental management or science. My particular interests lie in integrated coastal zone management as well as environmental impact assessments (EIAs). I have had a variety of previous work experiences ranging from tutoring at my University, to working on EIAs and conducting field work in addition to several volunteer experiences with various environmental NGOs. I hope that during my time here as a part of the LOICZ community I will be able to build on my previous experiences, while adding to the good work that LOICZ and its scientific community has done.

Janeene R Garcia Janeene R Garcia

I am Jeneen R Garcia, from Davao City in southern Philippines. I finished my bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and had almost completed a master’s in Marine Biology in the Philippines when I came to Europe for this MSc in Water and Coastal Management. Between my bachelor's and master's, however, I worked first for a watershed governance project, and then with an environmental rights NGO assisting marginalized fisherfolk communities. At the same time, I also worked as a freelance writer, editor and photographer.

Here at LOICZ, my research is related to Priority Topic No. 1, Linking Social-Ecological Systems in the Coastal Zone. The primary aim of this topic is to provide decision support by projecting the state of the marine environment under different social and economic scenarios and at different spatial scales. It seeks to synthesise existing knowledge and information on ecology, policy, and socioeconomics by coupling models of ecological and social systems. The studies under this topic ultimately show us that how our society functions affects the health of our environment, and that the health of our environment ultimately affects how our society functions. My research specifically seeks to investigate how the management interventions in coastal social-ecological systems can be transferred across scales from local to global, and global to local. I plan to study the case of Apo Island in central Philippines, the world’s oldest successful community-based marine protected area, and how the management strategies here have been scaled up to the municipal, provincial and national levels.

Ivan Sekovski Ivan Sekovski

My name is Ivan Sekovski and I come from Split, Croatia. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology and Ecology. I am currently doing my Masters in Water and Coastal Management, as a part of the Erasmus Mundus Programme. The final part of the research, which will be presented in my Master’s thesis, takes place at the LOICZ IPO in the GKSS research centre in Geesthacht, Germany.
My thesis focuses on the vulnerability of coastal mega-cities to climate changes and is supervised by Professor William Dennison from University of Maryland and co-supervised by Professor Alice Newton from University of Algarve. Vulnerability related to climate changes is particularly important for the LOICZ research, being one of its Scientific Themes. This is why I personally consider the LOICZ IPO as an ideal place to finish my studies, especially because of all the data and information that it can provide me with. The reason why I chose to participate in this particular research is the complexity of understanding all the interrelations in the human environment in this era of climate change, which I find extremely challenging. Communities living in coastal mega-cities are much more vulnerable to climate change effects due to the vicinity of coastline and, hence, greater exposure to climate threats - sea-level rise, storms, floods… Mega-cities are also places of rapidly growing population, hence resulting in vulnerability of an ever increasing number of people. That is why I will take a deeper look into all the management strategies and adaptive policies related to the above mentioned issues, and try to comprehend which could be the best way to deal with these emerging threats.