Dr. Tania Mendo focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to achieving effective management of small-scale coastal fisheries – a global challenge for sustainable development, that is vital for millions of people. She is most interested in research that informs policy and focuses on the development of methods and indicators to secure a just space for small-scale fishers in the blue economy. Fishers are the largest group of users of the marine space, however, they are often marginalised and not included in the marine spatial planning process. I specifically focus on the development and incorporation of socio-economic indicators to adequately represent the contribution of small-scale fishers for employment, poverty alleviation, and food security and in developing statistical methods to adequately represent fishers use of marine space. While these methods are heavily statistically driven, in order to communicate with stakeholders and policy makers, Tania has developed user-friendly interfaces to visualise temporal changes in spatial data and convey information more effectively. Her research philosophy is based on applying scientifically robust and reproducible techniques to address stakeholder challenges.

Some of the topics that Tania is currently exploring are:

• Robust mathematical and modelling techniques including machine learning approaches to understand behaviour decision making and displacement in space.
• How do we secure blue justice for small scale fisheries and incorporate this into marine spatial planning?
• What are the adaptation strategies and drivers increasing resilience in fishing communities – can we use different perspectives/lenses to understand these?
• Changes in agroecological production systems in hyper-arid areas due to climate change.

Some of the projects that Tania is currently working on or has worked on are:

Digital transition of catch monitoring in European fisheries, which aims to digitize fisheries management to the best interests of both the fishers and the fish and obtain better work conditions and more accurate catch reporting in the fisheries at large.

Conserving Atlantic Biodiversity by Supporting Innovative Small-scale Fisheries Co-management. Aimed at improving the protection of the marine environment and marine resources in the Northeast Atlantic. By engaging small-scale fisheries and facilitating a collaborative approach between stakeholders, the project seeks to establish an ecosystem-sensitive approach to management of small-scale fisheries in the area.

Fishing and farming in the desert.  A platform for understanding El Niño food system opportunities in the context climate change in Sechura, Peru