Catarina Frazão Santos featured in Wilder: “It's all about the people”

MARE researcher Catarina Frazão Santos was the protagonist of the latest interview in the “Researchers for Nature” series, promoted by Wilder magazine. In this conversation, Catarina shares her academic and professional career, the challenges of interdisciplinary science and the importance of integrating climate change into marine space management.  

With an initial career divided between the arts and the sciences, it was her passion for the sea that led her to choose Biology. Throughout her training and research, she discovered the field of environmental management and its potential to connect science with society. Her work has focused on how climate change affects marine ecosystems and how these impacts can - and should - be integrated into public policies and marine spatial planning.

After her PhD, Catarina led pioneering projects such as OCEANPLAN, funded by FCT, which sought to explore the interconnections between sea use planning and climate change. The project had a major international impact, contributing to UNESCO and the European Commission recognizing “Climate Smart Marine Spatial Planning” as a global strategic priority.

Catarina is currently coordinating the PLAnT project, funded by the European Research Council (ERC), which aims to apply the principles of marine climate planning to the Southern Ocean - a region particularly vulnerable to climate change and with a unique governance model at international level. The project seeks to demonstrate how integrated planning can contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean at a global level.

The researcher also highlights the importance of interdisciplinarity and ocean literacy, not only among the general public, but also among decision-makers, economic sectors and managers. “When we do environmental management, we're not actually managing the ecosystem, we're managing human behavior on that ecosystem. So what we're doing is changing the way we human beings relate to that environment,” he says.

At the end of the interview, he leaves young researchers with an inspiring message: It's essential to try, even when you don't think you're good enough. Failure is part of it. The important thing is to keep looking for solutions.

The full interview can be read on Wilder HERE