Project AWARE has welcomed Ian Campbell as its new Associate Director, Policy and Campaigns.

Ian Campbell draws from 20 years’ experience in marine conservation, working in the public, private and NGO sectors. His extensive international work experience and background as marine surveyor, commercial diver, fisheries officer, and author and consultant on policy matters including the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy, have led Ian to focus, throughout his professional career, on reducing impacts of commercial fisheries, habitat protection and sustainable shark and ray tourism.

Ian comes to Project AWARE from World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) where he was leading and managing complex shark and ray conservation initiatives and projects including heading up the Pacific Shark Heritage Programme and overseeing engagements with the international fisheries bodies, global conservation agreements and development of national conservation policies. In 2014, Ian was the technical specialist for the Fiji government delegation to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), successfully adding manta and mobula rays to the Convention. This success was repeated in 2016 when mobula rays were adopted under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES).

“Collaborating with Project AWARE is not new to Ian Campbell. In 2017, he served as WWF’s lead for the development of the world’s first-ever guidelines for shark and ray tourism operators – Responsible Shark and Ray Tourism: A Guide to Best Practice – in partnership with Project AWARE and Manta Trust.” says Danna Moore, Project AWARE Global Operations Director. “We’re thrilled to have new opportunities to work together and build on his experience and passion for marine protection to carry forward the long-term strategic vision of Project AWARE”.

“Growing up in a small fishing village in South Wales, my love of the ocean developed from an early age. I remember watching early ocean documentaries and films like Jaws which led me to study Marine Biology at university. I am very lucky to have had a career which has covered a wide range of marine issues, from fisheries, habitat protection and of course, sharks and ray issues.” says Ian Campbell. “After 20 years of working across the spectrum of marine conservation roles, I’m excited to join the Project AWARE team and its global community of ocean enthusiasts to drive the organisation’s overall policy work and conservation outcomes”.

Ian joins the Project AWARE global team working to empower a movement of ocean adventurers to take action for a return to a clean, healthy ocean. As Associate Director of Policy and Campaigns, Ian leads Project AWARE’s development and implementation of key strategic conservation projects and initiatives with a view to influencing policy developments at the local, national and global levels.

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