Profile
Biography
Ussif Rashid Sumaila, Ph.D. is Director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit (FERU) at the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre, Vancouver, Canada. Sumaila’s research is in the area of natural resource and environmental economics, with particular emphasis on fisheries. Sumaila is deeply interested in how economics, through integration with ecology and other disciplines, can be used to help ensure that environmental resources are sustainably used and managed for the benefit of both current and future generations. Sumaila has won a number of awards including the Craigdarroch Award for Societal Contribution; the Zayed International Price for the Environment, and the Peter Wall Centre Senior Early Career Scholar Award.
Sumaila has authored/co-authored numerous journal articles, edited books/volumes, book chapters and other publications. He selects a wide range of journals and outlets for the publication of his work. This allows him to reach diverse audiences. His work is read by mainstream economists through publications in outlets such as the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Land Economics, Environment and Resource Economics and Marine Resource Economics. He also addresses interdisciplinary scholars by publishing in journals such as Nature, Natural Resource Modeling, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Fisheries Research, Ecological Economics, ICES Journal of Marine Science, Coastal Management, Fish and Fisheries. With an goal of reaching policy makers and other stakeholders, he publishes in Marine Policy, Natural Resources Forum, the Journal of Environment and Development.
Sumaila’s work is taken seriously by policy makers at the highest levels, resulting in invitations to give talks at the United Nations, The White House, the U.S. Congress, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the World Trade Organization. His work has generated significant international interest, and has been cited by, among others, the Economist, the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, Maine Sunday Telegram, the Financial Times, The Globe and Mail, Voice of America, CBC News and the Vancouver Sun.
Sumaila received his Masters and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Bergen in Norway.
MORE INFORMATION
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) discusses the way forward for fishery subsidies
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EDUCATION
Ph.D., University of Bergen
1996 - Economics, Bergen, Norway
M.Sc., University of Bergen
1993 - Economics, Bergen, Norway
B.Sc., Ahmadu Bello University
1986 - Quantity Surveying, Zaria, Nigeria
KEY POSITIONS HELD
Fisheries Centre, University British Columbia
2006-PRESENT - Associate Professor, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Fisheries Center, University of British Columbia
2002-2006 - Assistant Professor, British Columbia, Canada
Fisheries Center, University of British Columbia
2001-2001 - Research Associate, British Columbia, Canada
KEY LEADERSHIP POSITIONS
United Nations Head Office
2005-2005- Consultant, New York, New York, USA
The Organization for Economic Cooporation and Development
2004-2004- Consultant, Paris, France
TEACHING & PUBLIC SPEAKING
Congressional (Hill) Briefing
2006 - U.S. Congress, Washington, D.C., USA
Economics of rebuilding U.S. overfished stocks
2005 - Office of Management and Budget, Executive Office of the President of the USA, Washington, D.C., USA
Presentation on the Economics of marine ecosystem restoration
Workshop on Subsidies and Sustainable Fisheries Management
2004 - United Nations Environmental Program, Geneva, Switzerland
Presentation entitled Achieving Sustainable Fisheries: The Economic Dimension,
KEY AWARDS & HONORS
Peter Wall Senior Early Career Scholar
2007
Craigdarroch Award for Societal Contribution to project members of Coasts Under Stress project
2007
Zayed International Price for the Environment
2006 - Millennium Ecosystem Assessment
SELECT PUBLICATIONS
Clark, C.M., G. Munro and U.R. Sumaila (2007). Buyback, subsidies, the time consistency problem and the ITQ alternative. Land Economics, 83(1), 50-58
Sumaila, U.R. and C. Walters (2007). Making future generations count: Comment on “Remembering the future”. Ecological Economics 60(3), 487-488.
Sumaila, U.R., Dale Marsden, Reg Watson, and Daniel Pauly (in press) Global ex-vessel fish price database: construction and applications. Journal of Bioeconomics
Sumaila, U.R., G. Munro and J. Sutinen (2007). Recent developments in fisheries economics: An introduction. Land Economics, 82 (1),
Sumaila, U.R., G. Munro and J. Sutinen (Editors), 2007. Recent Developments in Fisheries Economics. Special Issue of Land Economics
Sumaila, U.R., T. Charles and G. Sylvia (Editors), 2007. Topical Problems in Fisheries Economics: An Introduction. Marine Resource Economics
Berman, M. and U.R. Sumaila (2006). Discounting, amenity values and marine ecosystem restoration. Marine Resource Economics. 21 (2) 211-219.
Sumaila, U.R, J. Alder and H. Keith (2006). Global scope and economics of illegal fishing. Marine Policy, 30(6): 696-703
Sumaila, U.R. and C.W. Armstrong (2006). Distributional and efficiency effects of marine protected areas: A study of the Northeast Atlantic cod fishery. Land Economics, 82 (3) 321-332.
Sumaila, U.R., Pauly, D., 2006. Executive Summary. In Sumaila, U.R., Pauly, D. (eds.), Catching more bait: a bottom-up re-estimation of global fisheries subsidies (2nd Version). Fisheries Centre Research Reports 14(6), pp. 2. Fisheries Centre, the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Sumaila, U.R. and C. Walters (2005). Intergenerational discounting: A new intuitive approach. Ecological Economics, 52, 135-142
