Maria Eugênia Fernandes Freitas Email & Phone Number

I am responsible for designing projects from scratch, including planning, setting up and monitoring activities, and budgeting. I work closely with local partners to develop and deliver activities, according to local community needs. Currently, we have two main projects: 1) Co-creating Cambodia's first Single-Use Plastic Waste Free Island, working with the tourism sector and government across the Koh Rong Archipelago. We have conducted a plastic footprint assessment to understand SUP consumption, identify key drivers and barriers, explore alternatives, and select targeted interventions. Our goal is to implement circular economy initiatives such as deposit-refund schemes, refill programs, and year-round plastic-free tourism training, all of which will be integrated into the MPA Management Plan. 2) Women-Led project to co-pilot a return fishing gear system in Koh Sdach Island. This project aims to support local women to intercept end-of-life fishing nets and transform them into marketable products, inspired by successful global initiatives such as Marulho, Brazil and SOFER, Nigeria. The team engaged the fishing community to assess gear usage, net specifications, and interest in repurposing discarded nets. In 2025, we will implement a return gear system and provide capacity-building workshops on product design, entrepreneurship, marketing, and business development.

Ascension Island, Saint Helena, Ascension And Tristan Da Cunha

• Responsible for coordinating, managing, and implementing on-site the South AtlanticPlastic Project on St Helena Island - a multi-partner project which involvesAscension and St Helena Islands Governments, the Zoological Society of London, and 3partner universities to work with island communities to reduce single-use plastics by30% on St Helena through circular economy and systems-change approach.• Responsible for stakeholders' systematic mapping for St Helena and stakeholderengagement plan, building relationships and partnerships.• Identify the quantity of importation, generation, usage, and disposal of single-useplastics on the island.• Co-develop with the team an inclusive community engagement approach.• Work closely with partners to develop, design and deliver project outputs, campaigns,and strategies.• Inform project status updates weekly to project partners and team members.• Plan and set up activities, indicators, deadlines, timelines, resources, budgetexpenditures, work plans, fieldwork schedules, expeditions, and logistics.• Ensure that the project budget is monitored, recorded, and reported.• Develop and manage grant proposals. Recently accepted by the Ocean Conservancy.• Create regular progress reports to funding agencies, and review public policies.• Produce documents for varied audiences including research permits, grantproposals, presentations, website and newspaper content, and press releases.• Work with Waste Management team providing guidance and improvements to theisland waste management system.• Design and implement a robust littering monitoring and data collection strategy forshore litter in St Helena, characterizing litter composition and identifying plastichotspot sites, and wildlife impacts.• Coordinate environmental education activities and outreach events e.g. Development of a comic book to highlight microplastic pollution, delivered to all schools in Ascension, St Helena, and Tristan da Cunha Islands.

São Paulo, Brasil

• Responsible for coordinating projects that promote the Global Ocean Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, with emphasis on Sustainable Development Goal 14 and others that interact directly and indirectly with the ocean and with the United Nations Decade of Oceanic Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).• Simultaneous management of projects in different workgroups: LixOceano (Litter and the Ocean), InovaOceano (Innovation and the Ocean) and ArteOceano (Art and the Ocean), which include SDGs, oceanic culture, blue economy, public policies, and environmental education.• Fundraised for conservation projects to include Brazilian sign language translation inevents and workshops.• Monitored project progress, identified, and tracked follow-up actions.• Co-designed collaborative projects with multiple partner organizations involved.• Developed project proposals, events, and campaigns on time and within budget.• Conducted surveys, workshops, and presentations.

• Consultant for the Stocktake of Actions on Marine Plastic Litter and Microplastics in theLatin American and Caribbean Region (LAC).• Handled extensive data sets following research protocols in line with the UK GeneralData Protection Regulation (GDPR).• Communication focal point with different stakeholders to validate their informationand guarantee their submissions' accuracy (in English, Spanish, and Portuguese).• Identified missing Latin American voices, projects, and initiatives to include them in thestocktake.• Prepared infographics, reports, and presentations to showcase project milestones and progress.• Regular reporting to partners.• Reviewed, analyzed, and interpreted responses.

Oceanographic Institute Of The University Of São Paulo

• Responsible for identifying, integrating, and engaging parliamentarians, scientists, andindigenous communities to co-create public policies aimed at the Brazilian coastal and marine areas.• Planned logistics, organized and facilitated seminars, meetings, and workshops inBrasília and São Paulo cities.• Provided guidance to scientists on how to transform science into accessible languageinformation to help decision-making processes.• Applied Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response Framework to projects.• Managed relationships and updates with more than 100 stakeholders.• Content creator for social media and website.• Helped with expenditure tracking and reporting to funders.

São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil

• Responsible for the technical survey of laws and bills focused on banning single-useplastics throughout Brazil.• Reported findings, learnings, and project opportunities for WWF-Brazil to explorerelated to plastic.

São Paulo E Região, Brasil

Representative at environmental events and universities in the state of São Paulo, using lectures and dynamics in order to sensitize people about marine litter and its impacts on the environment, possible behaviour changes, and promotion of circular economy. I helped the brand to create plastic-free products from design to implementation with the engineering team.

São Paulo

I participated in the Mata Atlântica e Marine Program with a focus on planning conservation actions aimed at elasmobranchs and Franciscana dolphins. Assistance to the analysts' team in the review of official documents related to responsible tourism with sharks and rays and environmental education. Creation of didactic material for children and youth for the World Oceans Day campaign in Fernando de Noronha Island. Participation in the Communication Workshop on Franciscana dolphins involving researchers, partners, and communicators, whose objective was the elaboration of effective strategies for popularization and conservation.

São Paulo E Região, Brasil

Continuação do projeto de iniciação científica com enfoque nos esteróis como marcadores orgânicos para indicar a contribuição marinha e terrígena depositada ao longo da Plataforma Continental Sudeste Brasileira, sob a orientação da Profa. Dra. Márcia Caruso Bícego.

São Paulo E Região, Brasil

Projeto de iniciação científica utilizando n-alcanos como marcadores moleculares elaborado dentro do projeto NAP - Núcleo de Apoio a Pesquisa em Mudanças Climáticas da Universidade de São Paulo, sob a orientação da Profa. Dra. Márcia Caruso Bícego.

Master'S Degree, Marine Plastics Abatement

Oceanographic Institute, Bachelor Degree Of Oceanography

Técnica, Mining And Mineral Engineering

Short-Term Course, School Of Climate Change