Ms Abbie Allela is the founding Director of Blue ECO Associates. Previously, she was a programme assistant with the secretariat of the IOC’s Sub Commission for Africa and the Adjacent Island States (IOCAFRICA) at the UNESCO Regional Office in Nairobi. Here she gave support to the development of the portal for training opportunities in ocean related topics in Africa, the spatial data, and maps databases, the African Coastal and Marine Atlases, and implementation of Marine Spatial Planning initiatives in the region. Abbie is an active marine scientist with a keen interest in research and empirical studies that focus on sustainable integrated natural resources management. She joined UNESCO from the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), where she worked as a graduate research fellow within the Natural Resources and Ecosystems Department. She had previously supported IOC/MPR in organizing national marine spatial planning workshops in Kenya and worked as an intern for IOCAFRICA where she gained invaluable experiences on marine sciences issues in African coastal and adjacent island states. Other organizations in which she has enhanced her training and work experience include the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute, the Worldwide Fund for Nature, and Future Earth. Working in all her roles has enabled her to build her competencies in research on marine and freshwater science, forestry, biodiversity, climate action as well as the new frontier of blue economy, within the Kenyan landscape and beyond. She has a Master of Science degree in Marine and Lacustrine Science and Management (jointly offered by the Universities of Ghent, Antwerp and Free University of Brussels in Belgium) and a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources Management from Egerton University (Kenya). She is currently a Ph.D. student in Natural Resources Management at Egerton University. Outside her scope of work and academics, she is an enthusiastic badminton player.