I study conservation conflicts: acrimonious, morally fraught divisions over biodiversity conservation and governance.
I collaborate closely with non-academic conservation professionals working on real-world conflicts. We use quantitative methods to measure people’s attitudes, beliefs, and policy preferences, and use results to propose practically orientated ways to improve outcomes for biodiversity and people. I have ongoing projects in Scotland (deer management, woodland restoration, potential reintroduction of Eurasian lynx), the United States (deer management, carnivore coexistence, wildlife decision-making and governance), Germany (hunting, carnivore coexistence),and southern and East Africa (human-wildlife conflicts, protected areas management, community-based natural resource management, hunting).
This research generates social and political evidence evidence on how different groups think about some of the thorniest issues in biodiversity conservation, including competing visions for nature recovery.
I am a community ecologist interested in biodiversity loss and its consequences for the stability and functioning of ecosystems and the provision of ecological services. I currently work mainly in grassland and forest ecosystems. I am scientific leader of the Sabah Biodiversity Experiment in Borneo where we examine the impact of enrichment planting on forest regeneration after logging. I am part of the new NERC thematic programme: Human-modified tropical forests, which includes the SAFE project that investigates the effects of forest fragmentation on biodiversity. On the grassland side I am part of the Nutrient Network, a global co-operative program to understand how nitrogen enrichment impacts biodiversity in grasslands. I also have a sideline in ecological statistical analysis.
I am a DPhil student in the Department of Biology and Geography, studying Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and other methods for ecological compensation, and how they account for real world biodiversity. My DPhil project uses a range of scientific methods (pitfall trapping, emergence trapping, DNA metabarcoding) to address important policy questions, and hopefully prompt changes to how we address impacts on biodiversity.
