Conservation Science

Senior Freshwater Conservation Biologist

Areas of Expertise: Freshwater conservation biology

Robin Abell is a senior freshwater conservation biologist at WWF. She specializes in broad-scale conservation planning to protect freshwater biodiversity. Her first major WWF project was a conservation assessment of North America's freshwater ecoregions, culminating in a 2000 Island Press book. She led the joint WWF-TNC effort to develop Freshwater Ecoregions of the World and has helped to develop conservation plans for freshwater systems including the Amazon/Guianas and Mekong. Her current research interests include the application of the High Conservation Value concept and framework to freshwater systems, and the use of protected areas to conserve freshwaters. Robin is a member of the World Commission on Protected Areas' Freshwater Taskforce, the founder and past leader of the Society for Conservation Biology's freshwater working group, and was content co-coordinator for the American Museum of Natural History's 2005 spring symposium, New Currents in Conserving Freshwater Systems. In fifteen years Robin has grown WWF's freshwater science program from a single person (herself) to one that spans both biology and hydrology and is regarded as working at the leading edge of freshwater conservation. In addition to her freshwater responsibilities, Robin currently oversees and provides strategic direction for WWF's new Conservation Science Network as well as the Kathryn Fuller Science for Nature Programs. In 2011 she was the lead organizer of the 6th Annual Fuller Science for Nature Symposium, Conservation Forward: Ideas that Work and How Science can Effect Change - widely considered to be among the most successful events of its type ever hosted by WWF. Robin has a BA from Yale University in American studies and environmental studies, and an MS in freshwater ecology from the University of Michigan.