Pacific, Climate & Environment Profile Series: Nicolas Guillemot

10 minutes ago

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As AFRAN celebrates 10 years of connecting people, knowledge and expertise across France, Australia and the Pacific, we come to the final story in our Pacific, Climate & Environment Profile Series. Over the past months, this series has showcased the diversity of people behind AFRAN's network and the many ways research, education, innovation and collaboration can contribute to a more sustainable and resilient Pacific.

For our final profile, we are pleased to feature Nicolas Guillemot, an agro-engineer, environmental scientist and entrepreneur who has spent more than 20 years working at the intersection of environmental sustainability, economic development, research and innovation in New Caledonia and the Pacific. His journey reflects an idea that provides a fitting conclusion to this series: the Pacific's constraints and vulnerabilities can also become powerful catalysts for innovation.

From environmental research to entrepreneurship

Trained as an agro-engineer at AgroParisTech and holding a PhD in environmental sciences, Nicolas originally moved to New Caledonia more than two decades ago to work on a research project examining the environmental and socio-economic impacts of mining. What began as a research experience became a long-term commitment to the region.

Over the years, his career has taken him across applied research, environmental consulting, international development, strategic governance and entrepreneurship. He co-founded Dexen, a consulting company specialising in environmental studies and natural resource management, before becoming involved in a new entrepreneurial venture: Neofly. Across these different roles, one question has remained central: how can knowledge and innovation be translated into practical solutions that respond to the specific realities of island territories?

Rethinking food resilience from the beginning of the chain

Food security is often discussed in terms of what eventually reaches people's plates. But Nicolas's work draws attention to another essential part of the equation: the inputs needed to produce food in the first place. For island economies, many of these inputs are imported, creating dependence on long and potentially vulnerable supply chains. Through Neofly, a Greentech/Agtech initiative developed in New Caledonia, Nicolas and his partners are exploring an alternative based on local production and circularity.

The project aims to transform locally available organic waste into insect-based proteins and oils for aquaculture and animal feed, as well as premium fertiliser for agriculture. The idea is to rethink part of the production system itself: turning locally available resources into valuable inputs, reducing dependence on imports and keeping more value within the local economy. In an island context, this can contribute simultaneously to food security, economic resilience, circularity and climate adaptation.

Building resilience through local production

Pacific Island economies face particular structural challenges. Geographic isolation, dependence on imports, long supply chains and limited economic diversification can make communities especially vulnerable to external disruptions. For Nicolas, resilience therefore requires more than protecting ecosystems from environmental change. It also means strengthening the systems that allow communities to produce, adapt and respond locally. Relocalising parts of value chains can help reduce exposure to disruptions while supporting local economic activity. Circular approaches can turn what was previously considered waste into a resource. And collaboration between research and entrepreneurship can help transform scientific knowledge into practical solutions. This broader vision places economic resilience and environmental sustainability within the same conversation.

The Pacific as a laboratory for innovation

It is easy to describe Pacific islands primarily through the vulnerabilities they face. Nicolas offers another perspective. The very constraints associated with island territories can create strong incentives to experiment, adapt and develop solutions designed specifically for local conditions. Limited resources encourage circularity. Geographic isolation can encourage greater autonomy. Long supply chains create incentives to produce locally. In this sense, the Pacific can become a full-scale demonstrator for new approaches to sustainability and resilience. Solutions developed in response to island constraints may also have applications well beyond the region.

As Nicolas puts it:

“The Pacific can be an epicentre of innovation and a source of inspiration for new solutions.”

Rather than seeing the region only as a place where global environmental challenges are felt particularly strongly, this perspective positions the Pacific as a place from which solutions can emerge.

Where research meets entrepreneurship

Nicolas's career also highlights the importance of breaking down barriers between different sectors.

Research can generate new knowledge and technologies, but entrepreneurship can provide a pathway for translating them into products, services and systems that can be tested and deployed in real-world conditions.

For Nicolas, strengthening connections between research, innovation and entrepreneurship is therefore essential to developing solutions suited to Pacific realities. The same applies to collaboration between countries and organisations.

His connection with AFRAN developed naturally through the Pacific ecosystem, including his involvement as a jury member in a start-up hackathon. He values AFRAN as a platform that connects people, projects and expertise across France, Australia and the Pacific, particularly at the intersection of research, entrepreneurship and innovation. These connections create opportunities for ideas developed locally to meet new expertise, partners and perspectives—and potentially grow into solutions with wider regional impact.

Closing the series: ten years of connections, and many more to come

Nicolas's story provides a fitting conclusion to our Pacific, Climate & Environment Profile Series.

Across the profiles we have shared, one message has emerged repeatedly: the challenges facing the Pacific cannot be addressed through a single discipline, sector or form of knowledge. They require researchers and communities, science and policy, education and entrepreneurship, technology and local knowledge to work together. Most importantly, this series has highlighted that the Pacific is not simply a region experiencing the impacts of global environmental change. It is home to researchers, practitioners, educators, entrepreneurs and communities who are producing knowledge, building partnerships and developing solutions of their own.

As we close this series, we would like to warmly thank everyone who shared their story, experience and perspective with us—and all those across the AFRAN community who have contributed to 10 years of connections between France, Australia and the Pacific. The series may be coming to an end, but the collaborations, ideas and connections behind it are only continuing to grow.