Cedric Sunassee is a Mauritian researcher and youth ocean advocate working across agroecology, ecosystem conservation and community engagement. His relationship with nature began long before it became his field of work; it was first nurtured at home, through family and intergenerational knowledge.
His great-grandmother, now over a hundred years old, remains a quiet source of wisdom. When a plant has finally bloomed, she simply says in Mauritian Creole, “Inn fer so ti devwar” — she has done her duty. In those few words lies an understanding of Nature following her own course, guided by forces and rhythms not always visible to us. For Cedric, we are not separate from Mother Nature, but beings among the multitude of lives that form part of her sharing in her complexity, beauty and resilience.
As an islander, Cedric’s connection to the ocean grew through familiarity, almost like returning to an old friend. Swimming, playing and fishing became ways of learning her rhythms: how she changes, what she reveals and conceals, and the life she holds and shelters. Across communities and cultures, the ocean provides food and livelihoods while carrying memory, identity, spirituality and belonging. Perhaps this is why the language of Big Ocean States, increasingly embraced by island nations, resonates with him: it shifts the gaze from the apparent smallness of islands towards the vast ocean space to which they belong and through which they are connected.
A graduate in Agricultural Science and Technology from the University of Mauritius, Cedric works as a Research Assistant in agriculture, focusing on agroecology and sustainable agricultural transitions. His research interests extend to ecosystem services, sustainable land use and relationships between people and landscapes. He also serves as Head of the Arts & Flora Departments at Sov Lanatir, a youth-led Mauritian NGO, where he works across ecosystem restoration, environmental education, art and community engagement.
His work has included mangrove restoration, nursery establishment, ecological monitoring and engagement with communities, youth and fisherfolk. Through initiatives such as Zistwar Propagil, he has also explored how science and community knowledge can be translated through visual art, storytelling and sound, making conservation not only something to understand, but something to experience and connect with.
Cedric is a co-founder of the One Ocean Movement, an international Pan-Afrikan, youth-led artivism initiative bringing research into conversation with community knowledge, language, storytelling and mural art to strengthen ocean stewardship. His wider engagement includes serving as Mauritius In-Country Focal Point for the African Youth Adaptation Network, participating in the Global Center on Adaptation Youth Academy on Climate Adaptation and Leadership in Nairobi, and being selected as a 2026 Sustainable Ocean Alliance Ocean Leaders Fellow, contributing to work on Indigenous and community-led ocean conservation.
Across these spaces, Cedric returns to a simple understanding: there may be many shores, languages and histories, but there are no separate oceans. There is one Ocean, and through it, we are connected.