Dr. Denis Worlanyo Aheto

Denis Worlanyo Aheto (PhD) is a coastal ecologist and Director of the Centre for Coastal Management – The Africa Centre of Excellence in Coastal Resilience (ACECoR) at the University of Cape Coast. He is an Associate Professor and a distinguished academic, with over 10 years of research and project management experience. He is the authorized representative of institutional donor funded projects in coastal and fisheries management at the University of Cape Coast funded by the World Bank, USAID and DANIDA among others worth over US$ 15 million. Prof. Aheto is a visionary leader with a strong passion for grants success and resources mobilization. His research interests are in coastal management, marine conflicts, fisheries governance, climate change adaptation, fisheries and aquaculture socioeconomics, ecology and management of coastal water bodies (estuaries and lagoons) and mangrove wetlands and topics related to anthropogenic impacts on the hydrology, coastal urban planning, blue economy, and social resilience in coastal economies.

He has published in reputable scientific journals including Nature Scientific Reports, Ocean and Coastal Management, Journal of Coastal Conservation, Wetlands, PLOS One, Sustainability, Aquaculture International, Regional Studies in Marine Science, Environmental Sciences Europe, West African Journal of Applied Ecology, African Journal of Marine Science, and the Journal of Environment and Ecology among others. He has also authored several consultancy and commissioned government and international project reports with a number of academic and professional awards to his credit.

He is a member of the World Bank interim Technical Advisory Committee (iTAC) of the West Africa Coastal Area (WACA) Program and a member of the Advisory Board for the US Government’s Feed the Future program of USAID. At the national level, he serves on the UNESCO Man and Biosphere (MAB) National Committee under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency of Ghana, National Board for Professional and Technical Examinations (NABPTEX), National Implementation Committee of Anomabo Fisheries College under auspices of the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture Development (MOFAD).

He worked as external examiner for postgraduate theses (PhD and Masters) from sister academic Departments from other Ghanaian public universities and has also reviewed promotion applications of colleague faculty members as well and has worked extensively to support curricula accreditation of public universities in Ghana (i.e. University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, and the University of Energy and Natural Resources) working under the auspices of the National Accreditation Board.