Overview
Rafid Shidqi (he/him) is a trained marine conservationist from Indonesia. He is currently a PhD student at the Duke University Marine Lab, working under the supervision of Dr. Grant Murray, and the founder of Thresher Shark Indonesia, a youth-led NGO focused on conserving endangered sharks and helping communities transition from traditional shark hunting to alternative livelihoods through research, education, and policy change.
Before coming to Duke, Rafid held consultancy roles with various global institutions, including the Asian Development Bank, where he led the implementation of climate change initiatives for young people in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Atoll countries. He also worked with the FAO in Indonesia as a specialist in small-scale fisheries development, documenting best practices for implementing the FAO's voluntary guidelines in small-scale fisheries. His other role was with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, where he facilitated youth in the Asia-Pacific region in accessing funds to lead community-based initiatives in marine conservation, climate adaptation, and mitigation.
His PhD work will focus on understanding the emergence of local political resistance in response to shark conservation interventions using the lens of political ecology. He cares about sharks and human well-being, and his goal is to understand how conservation (specifically in Indonesia) can be designed equitably without causing social marginalization.
Rafid earned a Master of Science in Coastal Science and Policy from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He also received a certificate in Sustainable Environmental Management from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a 2022 Graduate Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science (ICCS) in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford, UK.
Before coming to Duke, Rafid held consultancy roles with various global institutions, including the Asian Development Bank, where he led the implementation of climate change initiatives for young people in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Atoll countries. He also worked with the FAO in Indonesia as a specialist in small-scale fisheries development, documenting best practices for implementing the FAO's voluntary guidelines in small-scale fisheries. His other role was with the Sustainable Ocean Alliance, where he facilitated youth in the Asia-Pacific region in accessing funds to lead community-based initiatives in marine conservation, climate adaptation, and mitigation.
His PhD work will focus on understanding the emergence of local political resistance in response to shark conservation interventions using the lens of political ecology. He cares about sharks and human well-being, and his goal is to understand how conservation (specifically in Indonesia) can be designed equitably without causing social marginalization.
Rafid earned a Master of Science in Coastal Science and Policy from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He also received a certificate in Sustainable Environmental Management from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a 2022 Graduate Fellow at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science (ICCS) in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford, UK.
