Charlie Gough

In addition to conducting a PhD at the University of Exeter, Charlie is the Strategic Projects Manager with DASSH at the MBA and a part time independent Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant. Previously Charlie was the Senior Technical Lead for Fisheries Management and Conservation and the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation for Learning (MEL) for Blue Ventures, where she oversaw the research components that underpin BV’s community conservation programmes.

Before returning to the UK Charlie spent almost a decade living and working in Madagascar where (similar to other tropical developing countries) the lack of information on the status of marine resources often undermines efforts to manage and conserve them. Speaking fluent Malagasy Charlie established a participatory fisheries monitoring programme, and as a certified PADI Assistant Instructor led a number of dive survey expeditions along the west coast of Madagascar, as well as completing numerous consultancies supporting work in Madagascar, Ghana and Mozambique.

Charlie’s PhD research is truly inter-disciplinary looking to assess both the composition of small-scale fisheries catches in southwest Madagascar, as well as the social and economic contributions they make. Charlie hopes to use her research to advise the conservation work that Blue Ventures and coastal communities are doing in Madagascar and to advocate for improved recognition of small-scale fisheries in national and international policy.

Broad research specialisms:

Small-scale fisheries, participatory monitoring, community-led conservation, climate vulnerability