Richard Chesher, Ph.D.
30 years of professional environmental experience in island environments, including the Florida Keys, Bahamas, Barbados, Gulf of Guinea, Africa, Panama, Colombia, Guam, Northern Mariana, Palau, Yap, the Philippines, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji, Wallis, Western Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, and New Zealand.
Capabilities
- Multimedia for environmental education
- Facilitating community environmental improvement
- Fact-Finding and Reporting
- Training and teaching
Multimedia for environmental education
- Author of the Tellus Consultants web site. https://tellusconsultants.com.
- Co-author of the Sea Keepers internet site with over 300 web files packed with information on community and school participation in environmental monitoring.
- Producer of educational videos for community based environmental improvement including the Giant Clams of Tonga, Return of the Giant Clam (both in Tongan with Tongan participants), The House of the Fish (in Tongan and English on the problems of Pacific coral reefs), The Triton, Protector of the Reef, Code of Anchoring in Coral Reef Environments, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Dangerous Marine Animals, Community Forest Restoration in New Zealand, and others.
- Producer of The Thread of Awareness in Chaos - A CD-ROM multimedia exploration of life in the sea.
Facilitating community environmental improvement
30 years of experience in working with volunteers for resource assessment and monitoring including:
- 1968 to 1969 Divers throughout the Pacific help map the distribution of the Crown of Thorns starfish.
- 1968 to 1969 Guam volunteer divers assist in community based Crown of Thorns control program.
- 1972 to 1975 Sixteen Earthwatch expeditions use volunteer divers to help document the impact of man on Bahamian and Florida Key coral reefs.
- 1980 to 1981 Eight Earthwatch expeditions use volunteer divers for coral reef resource assessments in Papua New Guinea.
- 1986 to 1987 Five Earthwatch expeditions use volunteers for resource mapping in Vava'u Tonga.
- 1988 to 1991 Twenty Five Earthwatch expeditions use volunteers to help establish and monitor community based giant clam sanctuaries in the Kingdom of Tonga and produce two videos.
- 1992 to 1993 Ten Earthwatch expeditions use volunteers to develop a community based coral reef management plan for the Kingdom Of Tonga and produce three videos.
- 1995 to 1996 Director of the Sea Keepers for Schools Activity with 1250 participating schools in New Zealand (Telecom Education Foundation and Sea Keepers).
Fact-Finding and Reporting
- Co-ordinator researcher and editor for the development of the Environmental Management Plan of the Kingdom of Tonga (Government of Tonga and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific).
- Researcher and Author of the State of the Environment of Oceania 1995. (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific).
- Researcher and Author of 1997 Case Studies on Resource Assessment and Monitoring in Pacific Islands. (United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific).
- 35 years of experience in scientific assessment and monitoring surveys on coral reefs, black corals, pearl oysters, giant clams, crown-of-thorns starfish.
- Pollution sources surveys, environmental impact assessments, and project evaluation for coastal zone management and sustainable development.
- Author of more than 48 scientific papers, 44 popular articles and books, and 21 Audio-visual productions.
Training and teaching
- 1958 to 1968 Professional SCUBA instructor. Established PADI Science
Diver Classification.
- 1967 to 1968 College and graduate level teaching at the Museum of
Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
- 1968 to 1969 College and graduate level teaching at the University of
Guam, evolution and invertebrate zoology
- 1969 Trained 69 professional scientists in field survey techniques
for U.S. Department of the Interior Pacific Crown of Thorns Assessment Survey
- 1972 to 1993 Trained 64 teams of Earthwatch volunteer divers in field
survey techniques for remote sensing, land and underwater resource mapping, marine
resource survey techniques, general marine ecology.
- 1984 Regional South Pacific Workshop on coastal processes (USGS,
SPREP).
- 1985 Regional South Pacific Workshop on Environmental Project
Evaluation (Saipan 1985 SPREP, IUCN, UNEP)
- 1986 Regional Pacific Island Regional Remote Sensing Training Course
on Resource Mapping, January 1986 (Suva, Fiji. ESCAP/UNDP/AIDAB).
- 1995 Prepared educational materials for Vision Hauraki (Auckland City
Council).
- 1995 to 1996 Prepared educational materials for Sea Keepers for
Schools, including 35 lesson plans on school participation in science projects.
- 1998 Prepared educational program for ESCAP Best Practices for integrating environmental information into economic decision making in Asia and the Pacific.