Nina Schoonman

Shaped by her childhood on the Swahili coast, Nina has always been passionate about the big blue. Inexorably drawn to marine ecosystems, she first studied biological sciences at Oxford University, before pursuing a Masters in International Development to better understand the increasingly human drivers of ocean threats. Since then, Nina has worked on diverse sustainability challenges from climate change adaptation in Tanzania’s agricultural sector and community-based natural resource governance on Malawi’s lakeshore, to coral reef health on tropical islands and elephant conservation on the dusty plains of northern Kenya.

Now a Researcher at Common Seas, Nina gathers evidence to inform our source-to-sea approach. Whether it’s policies that radically reduce plastic leakage under the Commonwealth Clean Ocean Alliance, untangling the intricacies of Indonesia’s informal waste sector, or diving up pearls of wisdom from existing initiatives, she loves exploring tangible ways to make humanity’s relationship with our common seas more sustainable.