Researcher profile: Dr Maina Mbui

Maina Mbui

Eureka Prize winner, Dr Maina Mbui (pictured) discusses his research and what inspires him in his pursuit to help reefs thrive in their changing environments across the globe. 


What real world challenge/knowledge gap are you trying to address in your work?

My work focuses on supporting environmental decisions. For example, the project that won the Eureka prize on interdisciplinary research sought to understand the differentiated quality of the reefs and what lessons could be learnt from this phenomenon.

Clearly, these ‘bright spots’ are not necessarily pristine but rather reefs that happen to be doing better than they should be given the circumstances. They are reefs that are ‘punching above their weight’ so to speak.

Given the amount of effort and the investments currently being expended towards sustainability, broadly speaking, there is a need for policy relevant science such as this that could inform the effectiveness of those efforts to promote success.

What/who has inspired you to pursue this work?

I have lived among and interacted with communities who are highly dependent on their environment for their livelihood. We are all dependent on environment in the grand scheme of things, but I am talking about people who live from hand to mouth – fishing trips that a father must do every day so that the family can have dinner, sell some to pay school fees, or buy medicine; or subsistence farmers who plant every season despite rampant crop failures because of changing climate.

If you had unlimited funding for your work in this area, what would you do?

For this project, the next step is to dig deeper into the social and ecological dynamics in the bright spots. By looking to the places that are getting it right – whether by accident or design – we can hopefully make the future a bit brighter for reefs the world over.

More broadly, I would scale up my applied research to address the disconnect between the global sustainability policies and the implementation of those polices at local level, including those pertaining to global biodiversity conservation, global goals and climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. Often there are gaps on information or understanding that limit the effectiveness of good policies and there is a need of science that can help inform the planning and implementation process.

Does your research have potential for commercial innovation/spin-off? How do you feel about doing this?

Spatial information and data technologies can be applied effectively to solving socioeconomic and environmental problems, which essentially means that there are and has been opportunities for commercial innovation. I mostly work with not-for-profit and government departments; therefore, this idea hasn’t been prominent.

PROJECT FOCUS

Why is this particular project interesting?

The Social-Ecological Research Frontiers (SERF) project is interesting because we are trying to find solutions to socioecological crisis facing one of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the world, coral reefs. A lot is at stake in terms of peoples’ livelihoods and countries’ economies.

We are leading in supporting global efforts to find solutions to current and future problems faced by coral reefs and the people who dependent on them. It is interesting to be part of the solution to future proofing of the coral reef ecosystems given their outstanding benefits both to other marine life and the fringing coastal communities

How do you see this project serving the wider community/economy?

At the local scale the project will help inform strategies that may help communities cope better with climate change impacts. The location intelligence gathered as part of this project is informing global investment on coral reef conservation. It also helping to embrace local innovations for better global outcomes’ through the additionality principle.

 Have you received any external funding for this project? If Category 2-4 funding, please describe the partnership and how it benefited the project.

I have received over $500k from Macquarie and industry co-funding under the DVCR scheme and I am grateful for the support. On this note I’d like to thank the leadership at my department, faculty and the DVCR in supporting my collaboration with industry partners. The partnerships have helped the project bring together leaders in the different disciplines represented. It has helped the project compile the first of its kind database on coral reefs in over 40 countries worldwide.

PERSONAL FOCUS

How important is collaboration in your work? Who are some of the people at Macquarie that have generated new ideas and opportunities for you?

Very important. As a decision scientist I have to work in a multidisciplinary space, because most environmental problems, which tend to be interdisciplinary, often require integrated solutions.  Just to illustrate the scope of disciplines I work in, you would have seen another Eureka finalist from UQ, the Reef to Ridge project, I am also involved in that project and collaborate with that group, which looks at reducing marine pollution from land. Coming back to bright spots work, it would not have been possible to compile data from 6000+ reefs from 46 countries without collaboration. Macquarie has some outstanding scientists and people; it has been blessing to work in a highly supportive environment.

Describe your relationship with teaching/supervising – what aspects do you enjoy/not enjoy?

I think seeing student’s development as they pursue their research up to the time, they graduate is quite gratifying. The most difficult part is when giving feedback to students who may not have performed very well, you sort of feel sorry for them and can’t’ really help them out of that situation.

What is your definition of success?

I think having an idea about the impact one wants to make and being able to make some of that impact as part of what they do for a living or in their day-to-day life can be satisfying.

What would your advice be for something just starting out in this field?

Dedication and commitment can make all the difference for anyone pursuing any career, and spatial information science is not any different.

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