Annette Broderick
Annette’s achievements in marine conservation are extensive and diverse. When still an undergraduate student Annette founded a marine turtle conservation project in Cyprus – a project that is now in its 28th field season! The project provides an extraordinary continual data series on turtles, and has seen over 1000 students from around the world, including a large number from Cyprus itself, trained in research, conservation and environmental education. This work has resulted in five major nesting sites being granted full legal protection, and signs of green turtle population recovery. Annette’s work in UK Overseas Territories in the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands is characterised by careful stakeholder engagement and partnerships with local government.
This holistic understanding of turtle fisheries, and proposed changes to regulation to promote sustainability, has a very strong focus on the of value traditional rights. Annette has researched Ascension Island’s iconic green turtle nesting population for 20 years, and these data are currently being fed into a management process that will see the UK Government declare a vast marine protected area encompassing at least 50% of the Exclusive Economic Zone around Ascension Island by early 2019 as part of the Blue Belt Initiative. Annette is an inspiring leader, researcher and conservationist.