Umair Shahid is a development professional with experience working on sustainability, fisheries, climate change adaptation, ocean governance, environment education, resource mobilization and research. Umair has worked with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for 16 years and is currently the WWF Senior Indian Ocean Tuna Manager. He works closely with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission and its member states to push for ambitious conservation and management measures for tuna, other target species and associated non-target species. For the past several years Umair has worked to improve the management of bycatch under challenging conditions on the coast of Pakistan and supported management in other countries in the region including the Maldives, Sri Lanka, India and Iran. Umair is currently working on developing mitigation measures for tuna directed gillnet/driftnet fisheries. He interacts regularly with fishermen, skippers and boat owners for collaboration on a significant research project on bycatch in the Pakistan tuna fleet.
In 2023, Umair became an International Board Member for the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI). Board members are resonsible for steering the organisation towards achieving its mission of increasing transparency and participation to ensure more sustainable marine fisheries management.
