The International Pole & Line Foundation (IPNLF) has announced that Dr Alasdair Harris, Founder and Executive Director of marine conservation charity Blue Ventures has joined its Board of Trustees. In the role, alongside his fellow trustees, Harris will help guide IPNLF’s future progress, overseeing the governance of the organisation and informing its international work.
He holds a PhD in tropical marine ecology, and an honorary doctorate of science from the University of Edinburgh. He is a TED Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow, and was the 2015 winner of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
As social entrepreneur, Alasdair Harris’s work focuses on developing scalable solutions to challenges in the marine environment, utilising approaches that bring economic value to coastal communities engaged in conservation efforts. Through these endeavours, he has helped set up some of the world’s largest locally run marine conservation areas.
“Alasdair is hugely respected in the marine conservation space for his ability to look at a challenge from all angles and to find innovative solutions, and his record of transforming fisheries speaks for itself. We are delighted to welcome him to the board and look forward to the invaluable guidance he will bring to IPNLF, supporting our work with one-by-one tuna fisheries and coastal communities,” said IPNLF Chairman John Burton, welcoming him to the Board of Trustees.
“I have followed the work of IPNLF closely in recent years and have been very impressed by the way in which it is empowering local fishing communities through the demand for sustainable one-by-one caught tuna,” Alasdair Harris said.
“In giving these fisheries a voice in the marketplace, IPNLF is effecting change and I am excited by the prospect of finding ways in which I can make that work even more effective.”
