Mar 04 2025 74 mins 2
In this episode of Soul of Travel, Season 6: Women's Wisdom + Mindful Travel, presented by @journeywoman_original, Christine hosts a soulful conversation with Dr. Rachel Graham.
Dr. Rachel T. Graham is the founder and Executive Director of the international non-profit MarAlliance. Dr. Graham is an award-winning marine conservation scientist with over 30 years living in Central America and experience in development, environment and marine projects in Latin America, Africa, and Oceania. She and her team work towards win-win strategies to rewild the seas with endangered marine wildlife while improving local knowledge, livelihoods, and leadership capacities, notably to improve the sustainability of small-scale fisheries and wildlife tourism to build resilience in the face of impacts such as pandemics and climate change. Her innovative and collaborative work set standards and critical baselines to measure marine wildlife populations, and led to conservation and policy wins, notably the creation and expansion of protected areas, marine species protection, and a first with the ban of fishing nets in Belize. She is most proud of her two sea-loving boys and her diverse and talented team at MarAlliance.
Christine and Rachel discuss:
· The importance of collaboration and involving local communities and fishermen in marine conservation
· The ways she brings purpose, nature and connection into developing conservation programs
· How tourism can be designed to strengthen conservation efforts
· Efforts to get women more involved in science & conservation and SCUBA diving in Guna Yala, Panama
Join Christine now for this soulful conversation with Rachel Graham.
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To read our episode blog post, access a complete transcript, see full show notes, and find resources and links mentioned in this episode, head to the Soul of Travel Website.
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Learn more about MarAlliance and connect with Rachel: https://www.maralliance.org
Connect with Rachel on your favorite social media network! Instagram / Facebook / LinkedIn
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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor). Dr. Rachel Graham (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing, production, and content writing by