Rate My Professor Karen Edyvane

Professor Karen Edyvane is an Honorary Associate Professor at the Australian National University Fenner School of Environment & Society. She is an applied marine ecologist with expertise in ocean conservation, resource sustainability, governance, planning and integrated ecosystem-based management. As a lead government scientist, Karen has led major marine biodiversity conservation programs, including Marine Protected Areas, large-scale marine habitat mapping, marine bioregionalisations, and impact assessment and pollution monitoring addressing ocean plastics, fishing debris and heavy metals in South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory. This work encompassed developing technical and policy frameworks for marine biodiversity conservation and State of the Environment Reporting, as well as identifying, designing and implementing individual MPAs and MPA networks, such as planning and establishing the Great Australian Bight Marine Park in South Australia and leading the first formal conservation and threat assessment of Giant Kelp forests in Tasmania. Since 2006, her marine research interests have focused on northern Australia and the Arafura and Timor Seas region, including Timor-Leste and Indonesia, with emphasis on coastal sustainability, climate change, Indigenous livelihood development and improving ocean governance. She is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas and a UN-recognised global ocean expert on the Arafura and Timor Seas.

Karen has held former research and teaching appointments at James Cook University, the University of Adelaide and Charles Darwin University, and has been a Visiting Professor at the Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa'e since 2012. As an experienced international development consultant, she has undertaken marine conservation, sustainability and livelihood development projects with the United Nations (FAO, UNDP), World Bank, USAID and Asian Development Bank, particularly in Timor-Leste and Indonesia, including leading UN-funded Large Marine Ecosystem environmental, socio-economic and governance assessments and transboundary diagnostic analyses for the Indonesian Seas and Arafura-Timor Seas. She has authored over 130 scientific research and policy articles and reports and supervised over 30 postgraduate students, including international students. Key publications include 'Long-term marine litter monitoring in the remote Great Australian Bight, South Australia' (2004), 'Large-scale seagrass dieback in northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia' (2000), 'Metal levels in seston and marine fish flesh near industrial and metropolitan centres in South Australia' (2001), 'Trends in derelict fishing nets and fishing activity in northern Australia: Implications for trans-boundary fisheries management in the shared Arafura and Timor Seas' (2017) and 'Collaborating for Conservation: A Summary of Current and Future Directions in Blue Whale Science' (2026).