Developing a framework to inform climate change adaptation for global biodiversity

My PhD and my first post-doc were in primate behaviour, and my interest in conservation stems from my second post-doc in the Zoology Department, where I modelled factors that influence whether the use of wild animals and plants in Asia is sustainable. In parallel with my research, I have always been passionate about science communication and I worked as an independent consultant for WWF on their Living Planet Report in 2010 and in 2012, helping to turn their biannual flagship publication into compelling and engaging reports about on the state of biodiversity and how our consumption and our ‘footprint’ affects the natural world. These were released in over 80 countries and have been translated into 14 different languages, reaching a larger audience than ever before.

Towards the end of 2010 I became one of two Programme Managers of the CCI Shared Challenges Programme, catalysing and coordinating collaborative projects between CCI partner organisations and the departments within the University of Cambridge. In June 2012, I became the CCI Programmes Coordinator. In March 2013 I moved to the Cambridge Forum for Sustainability and the Environment, as the Forum’s Executive Secretary.

I lead the new ‘people conservation science’ team at RSPB’s Centre for Conservation Science, monitoring and understanding the human side of conservation issues, testing solutions to problems and evaluating whether actions work.  The team has a particular interest in measuring and valuing nature’s contributions to people, in particular natural climate solutions and sustainable agriculture, and understanding the roles of nudges, perceptions, attitudes and connection to nature for influencing behaviour change.

I am currently heavily involved in exploring a range of ways of integrating conservation science and policy especially through the development of evidence-based conservation. I have written The Conservation Handbook and From Individual Behaviour to Population Biology and have edited Managing Habitats for Conservation, Ecological Census Techniques, Behaviour and Conservation, Conservation Science and Action and Bird Ecology and Conservation: a Handbook of Techniques and most recently Transforming Conservation: a practical guide to evidence and decision making.

Read an interview with Bill published in ‘This Cambridge Life’ by the University of Cambridge.

My research concerns the effects of human land use, climatic change and conservation management on populations of birds and other organisms. In particular, I attempt to measure and model the effects of agricultural development and management, disturbance, illegal killing, climatic change and conservation measures on the demography of bird populations. I then use the insights this provides to devise conservation programmes and strategies. With Andrew Balmford and Rosie Trevelyan, I am a founder and organiser of the annual Student Conference on Conservation Science in Cambridge which has been bringing early career-stage conservation scientists together since 2000.

I am Chief Scientist at BirdLife International where I lead a team who help to provide the scientific basis for the conservation programmes of the 115 Partners that form the BirdLife International Partnership. This includes assessing extinction risk for the world’s birds for the IUCN Red List, coordinating the standards and protocols for identifying and monitoring Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) globally, identifying key threats to birds and their habitats, determining the priority actions required (for species, sites, habitats and along flyways), understanding the how people depend upon the ecosystem services delivered by IBAs, developing biodiversity indicators based on bird data, and ensuring that sound science underpins BirdLife’s policy, advocacy and communications activities.

I chair the IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group and am a Senior Researcher at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.

I recently led development of the IUCN SSC Guidelines for Assessing Species’ Vulnerability to Climate Change, and spearheaded IUCN’s trait-based approach to assessing species’ vulnerability to climate change. I currently coordinate the African component of the Species Spatial Planning for Protected Areas in Response to Climate Change (SPARC) project and lectures in Conservation Leadership.

I previously founded and led the IUCN Global Species Programme’s Climate Change Unit (2007-2013) and the South African National Biodiversity Institute’s Threatened Species Programme (2003-2007). In these roles I initiated and coordinated several conservation and atlasing projects and founded a scholarship for research on threatened species conservation.

My focal areas include climate change vulnerability assessment and adaptation planning, biodiversity monitoring and indicators, African conservation and systems ecology. I have a specific interest in translating science for practical conservation, and in fostering conservation leadership. I have a great love for wild and remote places, where I can frequently (not) be found.

Nathalie currently works on climate change adaptation, especially ecosystem-based adaptation, and the impacts of climate change on biodiversity. Her broad portfolio also includes work on monitoring multiple benefits for REDD+, impacts of biofuels on biodiversity, climate change and drylands, and biodiversity offsets. Prior to joining UNEP-WCMC, Nathalie has been a fellow at the Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology, working on a briefing on biodiversity indicators; worked as an intern at the institute of Zoology; and worked with a Swiss research organisation on modelling lynx habitat. In 2009, Nathalie completed a PhD on the potential impacts of climate change on migratory birds.

My group has several current projects in the New World Tropics. My main project is a study of the effects of litter removal and litter addition on: tree growth, soil and tree nutrient concentrations, and soil carbon dynamics in semi-deciduous forest at Barro Colorado Nature Monument in Panama. Our second project is a long-term study of forest dynamics following a major Hurricane in the Blue Mountains of Jamaica.

I have spent the past 4 years working at the BTO and have been involved in several projects looking at the impacts of climate change on populations of birds and other taxa. I have also studied relationships in multi-taxa diversity, looking at how well birds might represent diversity in other groups.

Since December 2012 I’ve worked as part of the team at Econ-Ecology, an ecological consultancy firm based in Norwich.