Denis Worlanyo Aheto

Denis Worlanyo Aheto (PhD) is a Professor of Coastal Ecology and Interdisciplinary Oceans Studies and the Director of the Centre for Coastal Management – The Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR) at the University of Cape Coast. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Environment, Waterloo University, Canada. He is a distinguished scholar, with almost two decades of scientific project management experience. He is the authorized representative of several institutional donor-funded projects in marine/coastal and fisheries management at the University of Cape Coast funded by the World Bank, African Union, USAID, JICA, DANIDA, US Department of State, New Frontiers Research Fund (NFRF) of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) of Canada, among others. He’s passionate about international academic partnerships in his area of professional work. He has an outstanding intellectual publication record in indexed journals on issues of coastal/marine ecosystem conservation, small-scale fisheries, marine spatial planning, wetlands ecology, blue economy, and marine conflict issues, and has contributed significantly to the development of new academic programmes on coastal management, blue economy, governance and social resilience, coastal engineering, among others. He serves on several national and international boards including his role as a member of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Committee at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of Ghana, where he Chairs the funding subcommittee; Technical advisor to the West Africa Coastal Areas Management (WACA) Program of the World Bank, etc. He holds a Distinguished Lecturer Award from the University of Cape Coast, in 2015 and the 2024 TD Walter Bean Professor of Environment Award at the University of Waterloo, Canada among other several meritorious awards for his contributions.