Fred Saunders

I specialise in the political dimensions of sustainability within international development, conservation, environmental planning, and natural resource governance. My current research focuses on:

• Transdisciplinary methodologies for engaging small-scale fisheries, with an emphasis on co-production and institutional bricolage;
• Land restitution and justice in Mozambique, examining the socio-political dynamics of returning land to communities following large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) cancellations;
• Climate explores how marginalized communities reclaim agency amid environmental and climate-related dispossession, shaping more equitable transition pathways.
• Social sustainability and justice in marine spatial planning in the Baltic Sea Region, through the project Taking Social Sustainability to the Sea;
• Conflict transformation in marine resource governance, via the OCEANS PACT project, which explores transdisciplinary approaches to resolving ocean conflicts across the global North and South.

My work is grounded in a critically inspired political ecology approach, with a strong focus on justice, power, and institutional change in sustainability transitions.

Saunders, F., Prado, D., Knol-Kauffman, M., Sowman, M., Tafon, R. & Gilek, M. (2025). Exploring power dynamics and bricolage practices in diverse cases of marine resource conflicts. Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability, 3, Article ID 1548400.

Stalmokaitė, I., Tafon, R., Saunders, F., Gee, K., Gilek, M., Armoškaitė, A., . . . Zaucha, J. (2025). Exploring social justice in marine spatial planning: planner and stakeholder perspectives and experiences in the Baltic Sea Region. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 68(5), 1105-1127

Tafon, R. & Saunders, F. (2025). Toward transformative youth climate justice: Why youth agency is important and six critical areas for transformative youth activism, policy, and research. PLOS Climate, 4(4), Article ID e0000472.

Sokolova, T., Saunders, F., Gilek, M. & Tietje, K. (2025). Towards 'the science we need for the ocean we want': revealing and addressing power relations in knowledge-action co-production practices. Maritime Studies, 24(3), Article ID 45.

Mello, N. G., Christie, P., Prado, D. S., Martins, I. M., Saunders, F., Tafon, R., . . . Christofoletti, R. A. (2025). Ways forward in transdisciplinary research: Insights from case studies on marine and coastal conflict transformations. Sustainable Futures, 9(June), Article ID 100768.

Tafon, R. V., Saunders, F., Zaucha, J., Matczak, M., Stalmokaitė, I., Gilek, M. & Turski, J. (2024). Blue justice through and beyond equity and participation: a critical reading of capability-based recognitional justice in Poland’s marine spatial planning. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 67(10), 2206-2228

Saunders, F., Tafon, R., Knol-Kauffman, M. & Selim, S. A. (2024). Introductory commentary: Marine conflicts and pathways to sustainability in an era of Blue Growth and climate change. Maritime Studies, 23(1), Article ID 3.

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fred-Saunders?ev=hdr_xprf External link.