EP27: How Dr. Alasdair Harris is Scaling and Funding Conservation

Al founded Blue Ventures in 2003 to demonstrate that effective marine conservation requires pragmatic, entrepreneurial and locally-led approaches to marine and fisheries management. Within Blue Ventures Al is responsible for leading an interdisciplinary and international team of over 150 colleagues working worldwide. His work focuses on developing scalable solutions to marine environmental challenges, through approaches that make marine conservation make economic sense to coastal communities. Alongside his work with Blue Ventures Al is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Edinburgh School of Geosciences, a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas, and a member of the Marine Stewardship Council’s Stakeholder Council. Al is a TED Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow, and 2015 winner of the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship and the WWF Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Award. His work was highly commended by HRH the Duke of Cambridge in the 2013 inaugural Tusk Conservation Awards, and has twice been recognised by the UK Chancellor in the ‘Enterprising Young Brits’ awards. He has received the IUCN World Conservation Union’s Young Conservationist Award and the Condé Nast Environment Award. Widely published in peer reviewed literature and the wider media, Al is a regular writer and speaker. See his work in the TED blog, the Telegraph, the Guardian, BBC news, and WWF’s Fuller Symposium.