Nicola Thomson: ‘I have made a commitment to doing all I can to build our planet’s resilience’

As a child of the Pacific, coral reefs were Nicola Thomson’s playground. Born in Fiji, Nicola reflects that coral reefs were always something she took for granted but her strong connection to, and sense of responsibility for, the natural environment developed at an early age.

“Early on in my life, I witnessed my first coral bleachings and I started to notice the different ways in which they are threatened by local pressures. It sparked my passion and my career path because the thought of coral reefs dying was horrifying to me.

“I am deeply committed to responding to one of the greatest challenges that our generation faces: building our planet’s resilience to climate change,” says Nicola.

Nicola’s passion for the environment has inspired an illustrious career on a local and global stage brokering relationships between diverse cultures and stakeholders to help various sectors with their resilience and sustainability challenges and priorities.

“I spent the first half of my career working in the Pacific Islands region on issues such as conservation, climate adaptation and sustainability. Then, I worked more internationally on these issues.”

After years spent abroad, Nicola felt a change was needed. “A year ago, I made the decision to return to my home region because that’s where my heart is.” 

Shortly after returning to the Pacific, she joined the Great Barrier Reef Foundation team, as the Director of the Pacific Program. The Foundation has been working with Reef managers and front-line communities around the world (including in the Pacific) to co-design tailor-made solutions that improve climate resilience for the past six years.

As part of her role, Nicola is working at many different levels and across different sectors within the Pacific.

“The Great Barrier Reef Foundation has been built on partnerships. So, my main role and focus in recent times has been on establishing relationships within the Pacific to better understand how the Foundation can make a contribution in the region.”

Nicola feels the Foundation’s vision to advance its impact in the Pacific is well aligned with the values and ways of working in the region.

“The Great Barrier Reef Foundation values relationships first – moving at the speed of trust while taking a science-based approach that’s respectful of traditional governance. Traditional Owners are the original custodians of reefs and the holders of centuries of detailed knowledge about the reefs, their role in this work is critical.”

When asked about her greatest professional achievement over the last 20 years, Nicola reflects: “It’s less about moments and more about slow and steady progress – seeing talented people I have supported move into leadership roles, seeing new relationships between organisations that I’ve brokered start to have collaborative impact and seeing programs and networks that I’ve helped to set up delivering results years later.”

In the words of one of Nicola’s childhood heroes, Bruce Lee: “Long term consistency trumps short term intensity.”

Nicola says she wants people to understand that coral reefs are a connected community. “They’re made-up of this incredibly diverse combination of organisms, personalities and species and yet they’re also an interdependent organism – as is all life on Earth – and that’s beautiful. But they’re also in critical danger. There’s a way forward for us to help coral reefs with intervention but without that intervention, we will lose them forever.”

When asked about her favourite reef animal, Nicola holds a deep respect for sharks. “My family has strong ties to the island of Taveuni in the Cakaudrove Province of Fiji. The shark is an important species there. We swim with sharks every day. They’re more like dogs than anything else in terms of how they interact with humans. Where I come from, we respect the shark as a day-to-day companion that has as much right to be there as we do.”

If she didn’t do this job, Nicola says she would be working to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis in some other way. “Now that I am a mother and I have a young daughter, I am also motivated by what her future and her children’s future looks like and how I can honour that responsibility to them,” she says.