Dr Maria Beger

Can you tell us about your research, work and expertise in Southeast Asia?

I lead the Marine Transitions research group, collaborating with UK and overseas early career and established researchers. Our research extensively examines the coral reefs and other coastal habitats in SE Asia, as the area harbours the "Coral Triangle" - the global centre of marine biodiversity.

Our work aims to understand how human impacts (including the climate crisis) change coral reef communities, their biodiversity, and the services they provide to humans. We are interested in adaptation, both of reefs and the people depending on their resources, and how we can empower local communities, stakeholders, and policy makers to tackle and mitigate the vulnerability of coastal communities to climate change. We also focus on spatial planning and decision science, and provide advice to governments, NGOs, and scientists wanting to implement objective-driven transparent and equitable conservation actions.

We work with many local partners across SE Asia, typically they are conservation NGOs and local universities. Specifically, my current projects are (partners and funders in brackets):

1. Mangrove restoration and sustainable aquaculture production in Berau, East Kalimantan, Indonesia (YKAN, Universitas Mulawarman | Darwin Initiative);

2. Conservation planning with connectivity in SE Sulawesi, Indonesia (Rare Indonesia);

3. Climate REEFS: Integrating Risks, Evolution, and socio-Economics for Fisheries Sustainability on coral reefs in a changing climate (Pattimura University, Rare, Hasanuddin University, University of the Philippines, BRIN, Coral Triangle Centre, Pelita Banksa University, Haluleo University, The Coral Alliance | CLARE)
https://clareprogramme.org/project/fisheries-sustainability-on-coral-reefs-climatereefs ) working in Indonesia and the Philippines;

4. Global adaptive reefs – a global research effort where Ambon, Indonesia, is one of our demonstration sites (The Coral Alliance, UC Santa Cruz, Leeds, Pattimura University, University of Miami, The University of Queensland | Angell Family Foundation)

5. Sustainable ornamental fisheries in Indonesia (NERC DTP studentship).

I work with local students and ECRs from the countries my project are based in, and enjoy doing fieldwork with them, and I'm also an Honorary Professor at Universitas Pattimura. It is the love for coral reefs that keeps us all going!

Any anecdote you would like to share?

In October 2023, a team of 12 plus crew took the Cakrawala Maritim, the research vessel of UnPatti, on a cruise around the Lease Islands and Ambon. We had researchers from Indonesia, Philippines, and the UK on board, working together on research to understand the genomic diversity (detective work to find the right coral species underwater), overall diversity (environmental DNA sampling), and visual census (the traditional method of surveying reef biodiversity). Our work was followed by socio-economic and gendered household survey training and assessments to assess climate vulnerability in the nearby villages. We learned many things: how to ID corals, which words are the same in Bahasa Indonesia and Cebuano, what happens when the propeller falls off, and that the world revolves around snacking everywhere.