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People

Zach Ferdana, Senior Marine Planner

Zach Ferdaña
Senior Marine Planner, Global Marine Initiative

Brief Biography
Zach Ferdaña is a marine conservation planner for the Global Marine Initiative of The Nature Conservancy.  This position supports the planning and implementation of approaches in U.S. and international ecoregional assessments, marine gap analyses and ecosystem-based management.  The focus of his position is to develop methods and spatial analysis techniques in marine conservation planning including benthic habitat characterization, shoreline, estuarine, and intertidal systems mapping, integrated planning between land and sea environments and setting conservation priorities across multiple objectives.  Using Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and the Conservancy’s ecoregional planning approach, Zach has focused the organization to adopt planning innovations in coastal, nearshore, and offshore environments.

He received his degree in Environmental Studies at The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, with concentration in Landscape Ecology and Marine Mammal Biology in 1994.  He then went on to earn an advanced technical degree in GIS at the University of Washington in 1998.  Zach began his career in marine conservation with People for Puget Sound in 1997 (Seattle, Washington), constructing spatial databases and analytical techniques in marine and nearshore environments for their conservation and restoration projects.  He joined The Nature Conservancy in 2000 and continues to work on marine conservation efforts with an emphasis on regional planning and spatial analysis.