Sydney professor appointed UNESCO chair

Professor Elaine Baker, from the School of Geosciences at the University of Sydney, has received the prestigious appointment of a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) chair in ocean governance.

Starting in mid-September 2013, Professor Baker’s position is for four years with the option of renewal at the end of this period.

“Being made a UNESCO chair is a great honour,” said Baker, who hopes to use this to develop a more visible presence for the science that supports the sustainable use of the oceans.

UNESCO chair positions aim to improve the capacity of institutions to work globally and form partnerships with each other to deal with issues at a global level.

A number of programs coordinated by UNESCO, such as the University of the Sea and Blue Carbon, enable institutions to form partnerships in research, capacity building and knowledge transfer.

Baker leads the partnership between the 28 organisations involved in University of the Sea - a program that allows senior researchers from the Asia-Pacific region to work with young local scholars on marine issues in the region.

“The UNESCO chair position came about as the result of the collaborative project that is University of the Sea, but this is only one of many collaborative projects and capacity-building activities that I am involved in. I work with many other state government and institutional partners in the Pacific and West Africa on aspects of ocean governance,” said Baker.

“Most recently the United Nations has launched a program - the World Ocean Assessment - to make regular reports on the state of the marine environment including socioeconomic aspects. I have been very much involved in this process,” explained Baker.

Marine spatial planning and The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) for oceans project will be Baker’s major research focuses in this new position.

She has recently received a large AusAID grant from the Australian Government to conduct marine spatial planning with Pacific partners. The TEEB project was kicked off by a discussion paper commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program, on which Baker was an author. She is now developing a large-scale project for TEEB with global partners.