My group works at the interface of social and ecological systems, using a range of approaches to address key issues in current conservation. Our underlying philosophy is that in order to make progress we need to consider the incentives, pressures and challenges faced by individual decision-makers.
Our research falls within three broad themes: Incentives and attitudes of natural resource users; social-ecological system dynamics; management of natural resource use. The first theme addresses the drivers of human behaviour, the second the feedbacks between behaviour and system dynamics, and the third the effects of interventions designed to alter behaviour and hence slow the rate of biodiversity loss. We also have a 25 year research programme on the saiga antelope in Central Asia.
I am open to D.Phil topics within the remit of the group, which can be seen at www.iccs.org.uk.
All our D.Phils are interdisciplinary, using a range of methods from social and natural sciences. All our research is aimed at addressing real-world problems which are identified by practitioners in the field. We therefore generally partner with NGOs in devising and addressing research problems, and most of our D.Phils are co-supervised, often with people from other disciplines, institutions or departments.
