Dr Louisa Evans

Senior Lecturer

University of Exeter, UK

Louisa joined Exeter after four years at the Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Australia), two years working for WorldFish (Malaysia) and a PhD at the University of East Anglia (UK) in Environment and International Development. Louisa’s research investigates the agents, processes and structures of environmental governance and sustainable development, primarily but not exclusively in coastal and marine systems. The research aims to explain procedural and social outcomes (participation, resilience, well-being), and identify opportunities for improvement. Louisa’s research is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on sustainability science, development studies and management science to integrate concepts of rights, participation, collective action, resilience and well-being into emerging theories of social/policy change and transformation. Her research is often participatory in research design and methods. Louisa has led and collaborated on over ten research projects globally, working across Australia, East Africa, South-east Asia, the Pacific and the UK. Of most relevance to Blue Communities, she was a Co-I on an EU-funded action research project on governance transitions in Indonesia, Philippines, Tanzania and Solomon Islands called: Ecosystem Approaches to Management in Small-scale Tropical Fisheries (2011-2014). She has also researched the Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries ad Food Security as a governance transformation.