Fanny developed a career in international diplomacy specializing in ocean conservation and climate change. She currently heads UNESCO’s World Heritage Marine Programme. In 2018, she led UNESCO’s negotiations toward the successful removal of the Belize Barrier Reef from the List of World Heritage in Danger. From 2012-2021, she was UNESCO’s lead advisor for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.

Through her work she aligns scientists, NGOs and decision-makers behind actionable causes which most recently illustrated that marine World Heritage hosts over 20% of the world’s blue carbon assets. With the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, she’s building a global citizen science initiative using environmental DNA to measure climate vulnerability. Previously, she coordinated the first global assessment of the impacts of climate change on UNESCO World Heritage-listed coral reefs and World Heritage in the High Seas.

Prior to that, she co-initiated the global marine spatial planning (MSP) movement starting in 2008 with the publication of the first step-by-step guide on how to implement ecosystem-based management. She served as an advisor on MSP to the United States Council for environmental quality under President Barak Obama and the European Commission. MSP has since been adopted in over 70 countries and is now mandatory across 22 Member States of the European Union through the 2014 MSP Directive.

She holds a PhD from the University of Ghent, Belgium and is Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.