Sebastian Villasante

Is Professor of Economics at University of Santiago de Composetla. He is interested in understanding the social adaptation, transformation and vulnerabilities of marine social-ecological systems and coastal communities to global change under different climate change scenarios. Sebastian has been working on the co-development of future positive scenarios under the Anthropocene. He uses quantitative models combined with participatory approaches with multiple local stakeholders to investigate the spatial synergies and trade-offs of marine uses of different activities (e.g., commercial and recreational fisheries, aquaculture) under future scenarios. His works cut across multiple disciplines, from ecology, economics to social sciences, and range from local to global scales.

Sebastian has published over 120 peer-reviewed publications, including papers in leading international journals. Sebastian is also actively involved in international and regional initiatives that bridge science and policy. For instance, he was the founder of the ICES Working Group on Resilience and Marine Ecosystem Services, Coordinator of the Working Group on Monetary Valuation of ecosystem services of the Ecosystem Services Partnership, and co-founder of the Working Group on Small-Scale fisheries in Galicia (NW Spain). He serves as member of the editorial board of Marine Policy and Frontiers of Marine Sciences, and as scientific advisors in a number of international and local organizations including Future Earth, International Council for the Exploration of the Sea.

Most relevant publications

1. Grafton, Q. et al. (including Villasante, S.) (2019) Realizing Resilience for Decision-making. Nature Sustainability (in press) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0376-1
2. Custodio, M., Villasante, S., Calado, R., Lillebo, A. (2019) Valuation of Ecosystem Services to promote sustainable aquaculture practices. Reviews in Aquaculture (in press) https://doi.org/10.1111/raq.12324
3. Sumaila, R., Villasante, S., Le Manach, F. (2019) Fisheries subsidies wreck ecosystems, don’t bring them back. Nature Correspondence 571, 36 doi: 10.1038/d41586-019-02054-0
4. Villasante, S., Pita, P., Antelo, M., Neira, J.A (2019) Socio-economic impacts of the landing obligation of the European Union Common Fisheries Policy on Galician (NW Spain) small-scale fisheries. Ocean and Coastal Management 165: in press.
5. Carpenter, G., Villasante S., O’Leary B. (2016) Europe: Keep allowable fish catches sustainable. Nature (2016) 531 (7595): 448.