David Obura
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David Obura (born 1966) is a Kenyan marine ecologist.[1] He is a founding director of Coastal Oceans Research and Development—Indian Ocean (CORDIO) East Africa.[2] On 4 September 2023, he was appointed as the chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.[3] As the head of IPBES, which addresses status and trends of biodiversity, and its support (contributions) to economic and societal benefits, he aims to expand the platform’s reach and ensure that its findings and policy recommendations are seen by decision-makers in all sectors of society, including governments, businesses, and civil society.[4]
Obura was born on August 3, 1966 and grew up in Nairobi, Kenya. He attended varied primary schools, and secondary school at Strathmore College, Nairobi, completing 'O' levels in 1982. From there he studied for the International Baccalaureate at the Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific from 1983-1985. He obtained a Bachelor's degree cum Laude at Harvard University (1985-1989), before going on to the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, graduating with a PhD in May 1995. Both his undergraduate and PhD theses were conduted on coral reefs in Kenya, the latter focused on sedimentation and stress resistance of coral reefs in the Malindi-Watamu Marine National Parks.
During his studies, learning to SCUBA dive in the Canadian/US Pacific Northwest, early coral reef introduction in Jamaica, a summer course in Hawaii and assisting colleagues in their coral reef research in the Galapagos Marine Park set broad horizons on biodiversity, conservation and sustainability challenges in tropical regions.
Obura started working on coral reefs in East Africa in 1997, and soon after that joined the CORDIO project in 1999. He was a Founding Director of the non-profit company CORDIO East Africa (Coastal Ocean Research and Development in the Indian Ocean, East Africa), headquartered in Mombasa, which continues CORDIO activities to date across the ten countries of the Western Indian Ocean - Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania and in French Territories in the region. Other than Eastern Africa, he has studied coral reefs in Jamaica and Hawaii, and spent 6 years studying and promoting the coral reefs of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in Kiribati, in the Pacific, supporting their designation as a marine World Heritage Site, the largest in the world in its first two years of inception.
