Umair Shahid is a fisheries and ocean governance specialist with more than 18 years of experience in sustainability, small-scale fisheries, climate change adaptation, resource mobilisation and policy. He currently works as an independent advisor, supporting technology-driven monitoring solutions with Shellcatch and helping develop regional fisheries strategies across the Southwest Indian Ocean and South Asia. Umair has always built bridges across geographies and continues to do so in his new role.
Previously, Umair spent more than 17 years with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), most recently as Senior Indian Ocean Tuna Manager based in Mozambique. In that role he led multi-country teams, mobilised significant programme funding, and worked closely with the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission and its member states to advance ambitious conservation and management measures for tuna, bycatch species and associated ecosystems. He also led Ocean Leaders cross-over work that delivered a capacity-building training workshop in Zanzibar, Tanzania with fellow Ocean Leaders. Earlier in his career with WWF-Pakistan he pioneered bycatch mitigation trials, alternative data-collection systems and community-based approaches in the Indus Delta, and helped build the organisation’s national marine programme from the ground up.
In 2023 Umair was elected an International Board Member of the Fisheries Transparency Initiative (FiTI). Board members are responsible for steering the organisation toward its mission of increasing transparency and participation to ensure more sustainable marine fisheries management.
