Benjamin Brown is currently enrolled as a PhD Candidate at Charles Darwin University–Research Institute for Environment and Livelihoods in Australia, investigating mangrove forest landscape rehabilitation (MFLR) opportunity. Prior to joining CDU, Ben been lived and worked in Indonesia for 20 years since 1995. In 2000, Ben founded a small grassroots NGO called Mangrove Action Project-Indonesia, working in community based coastal resource management in 12 provinces in Indonesia as well as Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Timor-Leste. MAP-Indonesia became Blue Forests, who have since restored over 1000 hectares of mangroves, and run 140 coastal field school programs for rural livelihoods development. Blue Forests is currently engaged with programs in Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, Sumbawa and Papua.

Ben is author of several recent peer-reviewed papers on mangrove rehabilitation and management, co-author of a 300-page illustrated mangrove rehabilitation manual and a recent UNEP guideline for coastal carbon projects. Ben is a member of the IUCN Mangrove Specialist Group and Blue Carbon Scientific Working Group.