28 Nov CTC Board of Advisor Members Appointed as CTI-CFF Women Leaders’ Forum Ambassador and Chairperson

The six countries of the Coral Triangle – Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste – unanimously elected CTC Board of Advisors Prof. Dr. Nor Aieni Haji Mokhtar and Ms. Agnetha Vave-Karamui, as the new CTI-CFF Women Leaders Forum Ambassador and Chairperson, respectively, during the 13^th CTI-CFF Senior Officials Meeting held in Manila on November 28-29, 2017.

Prof. Nor Aieni is the Vice Chancellor at the Universiti Malaysia Terrengganu. She was previously Professor at the Perdana School of Science, Technology and Policy Innovation at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Prior to this, she was the Undersecretary and Director of the National Oceanographic Directorate, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, Malaysia, and was concurrently the focal point for the CTI-CFF Malaysia National Coordinating Committee. Her work focuses on planning, designing, coordinating, and bringing together domestic and international resources and expertise to ensure application of knowledge in oceanography and marine sciences. As Ambassador, she will be promoting the CTI-CFF Women Leaders Forum in international fora and raise the profile of women conservation leaders around the globe.

Ms. Vave-Karamui serves as a Chief Conservation Officer within Solomon Islands’ Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management & Meteorology, and most of her work has revolved around the CTI-CFF themes since early 2008. She is currently the CTI-CFF National Coordinator, a focal contact for all CTI-CFF related programs and activities at the regional, national and even provincial and community levels. She is making strides towards promoting conservation and environmental management within the government bureaucracy and maintaining networks amongst non-government and other stakeholder communities. As Chair of the CTI-CFF Women Leaders Forum, Ms. Karamui will lead the process of developing a gender policy for the CTI-CFF. She is also a mentor in the ongoing CTI-CFF Inter-generational leadership learning program.

We wish the two ladies all the best in their new roles and will continue to support them empowering women leaders in the forefront of marine conservation and sustainable fisheries in the Coral Triangle!