“I’ve always loved nature, nature is interconnected with everything else. A big misconception people have is that parts of the environment are separated,” says the Director of Science at the Hawaiian-based company Terraformation, Trinidadian Dr Shobha Maharaj.
Dr Maharaj has long felt passionate about the centrality of nature in all forms of existence. For many years, her research, study, and career have emphasised centring the issues of the Global South within the climate crises. She is currently collaborating with partners in countries across Africa, South America, and Asia, as well as within Indonesia and the Philippines. However, her work and experience are not only limited to the Global South, but they reach globally, within several different disciplines such as water scarcity, biodiversity, social sciences, Diversity Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), forestry, and agriculture pertaining to both climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Growing up in Trinidad, Maharaj loved spending time outside, being in the garden and the forest at the back of her home. She felt so deeply connected to nature that it was the only viable path of study she could foresee in her educational journey. Post-secondary school, she attended the University of the West Indies, where she pursued her Bachelor’s degree in Zoology and Botany. Subsequently, she completed an MPhil in Environmental Biology and spent the years after participating in a nationwide survey by the UWI. This survey is intended to fill gaps in the records of the vascular flora of T&T by providing a comprehensive list of the vascular plants on the islands. From 2006-2008, a team of scientists from the Forestry Division went to 100 points of T&T to sample plants and gather research. Maharaj considered this period “a foundational, development chapter of my professional career. It was both amazing and instructive, and it shaped the way I see nature. I always knew nature was interconnected with humans, with water, and with everything else, but to live, breathe, and experience it in the survey for two-plus years brought it to life for me.”
Maharaj went on to do her PhD at Oxford University, which, although one of the most prestigious universities in the world, she felt that “at the time there were certain issues, where students of colour and people from the Global South weren’t necessarily prioritised because of demographics.”
Her thesis at the PhD level combined all of her academic interests, including nature, forests, and climate change, and she did a study based on future projections of the impact of climate change on species on a small scale.
According to Maharaj, many scientists have done projection models on the future impact of climate change on a much larger scale, meaning small islands, like T&T, are lost and disappear into the details.
Her findings in her thesis research were very telling: endemic species (which are species found nowhere else on earth) that are very fragile are in particular peril due to the warming of the climate.
She found in a study published in 2021-2022 that for our islands if the globe warms to 3 degrees, 100 per cent of endemic species face extinction. Endemics are central to biodiversity, and small islands contribute up to four per cent of the world’s biodiversity. Loss of biodiversity accelerates climate change processes and is therefore very concerning.
She finds this particular line of study and research incredibly important, as it illuminates the connection between nature and human survival. “We live in silos,” she said. “Where we think we exist in one system, and nature is separate from us. It is why we are getting into so much trouble with climate change and the array of problems it causes.”
For her, the way forward acknowledges the connection between nature, humans, and climate change, especially on small islands. “We are the most fragile, as small islands have a drastic ratio of coastline to oceans, meaning that we are very exposed, and especially in dramatic weather events, the degree of impact is very high.” She insists that small islands also face the unique challenge of having very limited resources, with which they are forced to adapt, build resilience, and cope with losses and damages all at once.
‘People can make small changes for a big impact’
Dr Maharaj’s message is that education in the local context is crucial to addressing some of these adverse implications of climate change. “People have heard of climate change, but they don’t understand how their lives and livelihoods can be seriously impacted by changing climate conditions. In this context, knowledge is power.”
As a scientist, she steers clear of the issue of political will, and the bottlenecks that accompany it, but stresses that decision-making and policies need to be made with the future in mind. As for the everyday man, because we have a lot of sources of greenhouse gas emissions in T&T, many people can make even small changes for a big impact.
Farmers can seek to practice climate-smart agriculture, which, for example, employs different techniques to plough land or perform various activities that emit less carbon into the atmosphere. Daily commuters can seek to carpool with family, friends, and neighbours to reduce carbon emissions. People can plant trees and plants and conserve water as much as possible. “Some of this sounds simple, but these are the things our parents and grandparents were doing. Local and indigenous knowledge is effective; it doesn’t have to be tech-savvy or complex,” she said.
“There is no planet B,” Maharaj added. “But at the same time, we cannot sink into despair and give up hope, we have to get out of the silos, work together, and work harder.”
She feels inspired by the great number of young people on the ground who are active and committed to effecting positive change in the environment. She refuses to give into the rhetoric of negativity and despair surrounding climate change, as she sees slowly but surely that silos are beginning to break down and various disciplines are working together towards a common goal.
Dr Maharaj is loving the work she is involved with now, as she gets to “walk the walk” and is connecting climate change to forests, seeking how to use native biodiverse forests in the best way, and how to replenish native forests. This work allows her to connect to and co-create with nearby communities, and give back to the community by supporting and creating their livelihoods. This, according to Maharaj is the “triple nexus, climate, biodiversity, and human quality of life. They are inextricably linked and projects that don’t focus on them collectively end up failing. We don’t have time to fail anymore.”
Dr Shobha Maharaj is blazing the trail internationally, advocating for often voiceless countries in the Global South. She was one of two scientists who were selected to provide evidence for the upcoming precedent-setting case where the Commission of Small States (COSIS) is seeking an advisory opinion from the International Tribunal of Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg.
This tribunal hearing is doubly important as it will set the scene for the even more high-profile hearing for another advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (UN General Assembly) on behalf of Vanuatu.
The evidence she provided has been captured in the form of a report on the impacts of climate change on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), and in it, she continues to raise awareness about the major scarcity issues from which many small islands suffer. With her wealth of knowledge and experience, she is leading the region towards a greener, more sustainable future.
