Millennium Nucleus Center of Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands – ESMOI

Impact Area: Environment
Speciality: Ecology and Biodiversity

The Millennium Nucleus Center of Ecology and Sustainable Management of Oceanic Islands (ESMOI) expects to generate the scientific basis necessary to strengthen a strategy of sustainable management and biodiversity conservation in the Easter Island ecoregion, including Easter island and Salas y Gómez island (Rapa Nui and Motu Motiro Hiva in rapanui language).

Rapa Nui and Motu Motiro Hiva are the most remote islands in the South Pacific Ocean. Oceanic islands and undersea mountain ranges have great strategic importance for Chile and the country’s development because of its potential for tourism, fishing and the existence of unique biological resources.

This center studies the functioning of marine ecosystems in this ecoregion and its biodiversity, identifying the main threats. This is done with a multidisciplinary approach that includes studies in physical oceanography, biology, deep and shallow benthos, deep sea, predatory limits, population genetics, management and conservation, and citizen science. ESMOI researchers work hand in hand with the community to discover the secrets of the Rapa Nui Sea and propose strategies for resource management and conservation of marine ecosystems based on their worldview, the rapanui.

Carlos F. Gaymer
Carlos F. GaymerDirector
Guillermo Luna-Jorquera
Guillermo Luna-JorqueraActing Director

Contact e-mail: esmoi@ucn.cl
Communication e-mail: esmoi@ucn.cl
Phone: +56 51 220 9935
www.esmoi.cl