Melanie Hamel

I am a French-Australian interdisciplinary conservation scientist working across Australia and the Pacific, at the intersection of ecology, social science, Indigenous knowledges and policy. I bring together diverse knowledges, data and methods to support conservation and management that is grounded in both evidence and place.

My work focuses on Indigenous partnerships, participatory approaches, conservation planning and spatial analysis across terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments. I collaborate with Indigenous organisations and communities, researchers, government and NGOs to develop approaches that bring knowledge, people and place together in support of practical conservation and management outcomes.

I am currently based at TropWATER, James Cook University, where I contribute to the Marine Megafauna Research Group and collaborate with other JCU colleges such as the College of business law and governance.

Current projects

• 2026 | 'Indigenous Leadership for Dugong Futures (ILDUF): Connecting Kanak and Aboriginal Knowledges Across the Coral Sea' — PI.
  
• 2024–2025+ | 'Dugong Connections'  — CI; strengthening collaboration between scientists and Great Barrier Reef Traditional Owners for dugong conservation.
  
• 2025-2027 | National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Resilient Landscapes Hub, contributing to 'Environmental Economic Accounting – Developing and trialling approaches for accounting to ensure respectful inclusion of First Nations knowledges' (NESP 5.1).
  
• 2023-2026 | National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Marine and Coastal Hub, contributing to 'Partnerships and novel technologies for improved dugong research' (NESP 3.10).
  
• 2023-2026 | Water Security for Northern Australia (WSNA) — contributing to 'Indigenous values mapping and water resource enterprise product identification' (Project 1.4).
  
• 2021-2026 | National Environmental Science Program (NESP) Resilient Landscapes Hub — CI to cross-cutting initiative on 'Australia's threatened and migratory species and threatened ecological communities' (NESP 1.7).

Publications

Google Scholar profile

I acknowledge the Bindal and Wulgurukaba peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands and waters of the Townsville region, where I live and work. I also pay my respects to all Traditional Owners of the lands and waters I visit in the course of my travels.

Conservation planning, spatial planning

Integrating multi-disciplinary data and/or different knowledge systems to inform management

Marine megafauna ecology, conservation and monitoring