New Ocean Voices Fellow: Munshidha Ibrahim

Munshidha’s experience lies in the field of biodiversity and marine resource management. As a Director leading the Fisheries Management Section of the Maldives Ministry of Fisheries, Marine Resources and Agriculture, Munshidha has a strong commitment to improving the policy and management framework for the Maldives fisheries sector. Her aspiration is to explore and develop innovative environmental and fisheries management solutions and to integrate socio-ecological dependence and connections into the policy dialogue and enhance the science-policy interface in the country’s as well as regional policy interventions. At her current position, she works to develop and implement fisheries management activities at regional and national level and is a member of the official delegation of the Maldives to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission. 

Before joining the Ministry, she worked as a Social Science Officer at IUCN Maldives to understand stakeholder dependence on natural resources and their conservation targets. In this role, she has had strong exposure to community-based project planning, socio-economic research, community outreach and engagement, and development of environmental education programmes. 

During the fellowship, Munshidha will continue her research focus on “Exploring opportunities to expedite the adoption of an equitable tuna allocation system in the Indian Ocean and lessons that could be learnt from other Regional Fisheries Management Organisations”.