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 Justice this highlights how marginalized communities can reclaim agency in the face of environmental and climate-related dispossession.
• 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.

Recent Publications:

Saunders, F., Prado, D., Knol-Kauffman, M., Sowman, M., Tafon, R. and Gilek, M., 2025. Exploring power dynamics and bricolage practices in diverse cases of marine resource conflicts. Frontiers in Ocean Sustainability, 3, Article 1548400. https://doi.org/10.3389/focsu.2025.1548400

Sokolova, T., Saunders, F., Gilek, M. and 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, Article 45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40152-025-00439-8

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.

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.

·Saunders, F., Tafon, R., Knol-Kauffman, M. et al. 2024. Introductory commentary: Marine conflicts and pathways to sustainability in an era of Blue Growth and climate change. Maritime Studies 23(3)

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