Jean Mary Harris, Ph.D.
- Title
- Director WILDOCEANS
- Institution
- Wildlands Conservation Trust
- Country
- South Africa
- [email protected]
- Award year
- 2000
Research
Jean Mary Harris leads the scientific services division of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, a conservation agency located on the east coast of South Africa. With her Pew fellowship, Harris addressed marine species depletion and ecosystem impacts caused by intensive subsistence harvesting along the rocky shores of the coastline there. She worked to map intertidal habitats and surveys of biodiversity and resource stocks, collecting data on the physical and biological ocean processes affecting key harvested species (including mussels, whelks, limpets, and chitons) and the spatial patterns of biological community distributions. Working with local resource harvesters, she built up capacity for co-management of resources, including efforts to involve subsistence gatherers in research to determine sustainable levels of use and attempts to reseed species in depleted areas. This resulted in improved implementation of effective conservation planning and zoning for marine- protected, coastal co-management and conservation.
To learn more about Harris, visit her bio online: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jean-harris-2636767b.