Annet Pauwelussen is assistant professor with the ENP group, focusing on coastal resilience and inclusive marine governance, including changing notions of nature in conservation and restoration programs, particularly related to coral and shellfish reefs. With a background in environmental anthropology and qualitative research methods, she combines elements of science and technology studies, political ecology, multispecies ethnography and feminist theory. The aim is to explore matters of equity and decolonization in environmental governance and knowledge practices,  relating to marine and intertidal places. In this context, she leads a project on diversity and gender in coral and mangrove rehabilitation for the Ocean Nexus program (2020-2022) with the University of Washington.

More broadly, Annet is interested in inclusive approaches and methodologies that are responsive to diversity; making room for relational thinking, indigenous ecologies and dialogue across epistemological and ontological difference. Focusing on Southeast Asia and Europe, her work has focused on human-sea interactions, seanomadic lifeworlds, artisanal and illegal fishing, coastal restoration in relation to aquaculture, visual ethnography and mobile methods.

Annet graduated cum laude with the SDC group of Wageningen University with her PhD project ‘Amphibious Anthropology’. For this project, she conducted long-term ethnographic research among maritime communities in Indonesia to highlight different ways of relating to the sea. Annet holds a MSc degree (cum laude) in Development Sociology from Wageningen and a MA in Cultural Anthropology from Leiden University. In her previous positions, Annet was a Postdoc researcher with the Environmental Policy Group (WUR) working on inclusive business models in the certification of small-scale shrimp farms in Vietnam, and a lecturer with the Cultural Anthropology Department of Leiden University. Translating science to policy, Annet leads a project for the United Nations FAO on wellbeing and social-cultural values of small-scale fisheries with ENP colleagues, and she has worked for the North Sea Foundation as project leader Sustainable Food from the Northsea.

Equity in Oyster Restoration – Ocean Nexus program 

The UN Decade of Nature Restoration and the UN Decade of Ocean Science highlight ‘knowledge co-production’, ‘inclusive governance’ and ‘gender equity’ as crucial for effective and just marine nature restoration, yet it is unclear how this translates into the actual practices and projects rehabilitating coastal and marine nature. This pilot research project focuses on oyster restoration practices in Western Europe and the Eastcoast of the US. Oyster restoration in these regions show a variety of approaches, and different kinds of collaborations between scientists, non-profit organizations, oyster farmers, volunteers and others. While such collaborations are generally promoted, it brings different perspectives to the table regarding how restoration should be done, and with what purpose. Through interviews and site visits, this project explores the different values, knowledge practices and nature perspectives that underlie oyster restoration initiatives, how these relate to each other, and how they - in their interaction - shape the way oyster restoration is done across the Atlantic. Understanding how different actors in oyster restoration and their perspectives relate to each-other, and the power differences involved, is vital to successful and equitable restoration programs, and provides a basis for inclusive marine restoration policy.  

Focus: Oyster restoration practices, who and which knowledge is involved, how collaboration across different projects reveals different values and understandings of nature that inform different approaches and equity implications.  

Project PI: Dr. Annet Pauwelussen 

Researchers: Veerle Boekestijn, MSc, Wisse van Engelen, MSc, Dr. Annet Pauwelussen 

Funding by Nippon Foundation Ocean Nexus Program  

(picture by V. Boekestijn )

Ocean Nexus: Diversity and Gender in Marine Nature Restoration (2020-2022)

 EURASTIP: Promoting Multi-Stakeholder Contributions to International Cooperation on Sustainable Solutions for Aquaculture Development in South-East Asia.

Amphibious Anthropology: Engaging with Maritime Worlds in Indonesia (2011-2017)

PhD research project funded by the WASS open competition for PhD research