Measuring and monitoring ecosystem services at the site scale: building practical tools for real-world conservation

As Director of the Endangered Landscapes & Seascapes Programme, David oversees the delivery of a programme of work supporting large-scale nature recovery in Europe. After graduating, he worked at University College London exploring landscape-scale impacts of dams and drainage on economy, ecology and society in Tunisia.

David went on to work for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), providing technical advice on links between environment and local livelihoods at a floodplain wetland in northern Nigeria, before completing a PhD in Geography at the University of Cambridge.

From 1997 until 2017, David worked at BirdLife International where, as Head of Environment and Sustainable Development, he coordinated the different strands of BirdLife’s environment and sustainable development work and led on cross-cutting issues of conservation and governance, equity, rights, poverty reduction, gender, indigenous peoples, livelihoods and well-being.

I am a Professor of Conservation Science in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, where my research focuses on how to reconcile biodiversity conservation with meeting human food needs and other land-demanding activities; the costs and benefits of retaining intact ecosystems; and identifying what works in conservation. I collaborate closely with conservation practitioners and with colleagues in other disciplines, including economics and psychology. In my book Wild Hope he argues that cautious, evidence-based optimism is vital in tackling environmental challenges. I helped establish the Student Conference on Conservation Science, the Cambridge Conservation Forum, Earth Optimism, and most recently the Cambridge Centre for Carbon Credits.

I am a member of the Animal and Environment Research Group within the Department of Life Sciences.

My current, major research interest is in the development of conceptual and practical approaches to monitoring and evaluating trajectories of ecological change in large-scale wetland restoration projects. With my colleague Pete Stroh, I received research funding for the period 2007-2012 (£220,000) from the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, to set up an eco-hydrological monitoring programme and to develop protocols for evaluation of re-naturalised wetland habitats at the Great Fen Project and at the Wicken Fen Vision Project.

I am also involved in a research project that has designed a toolkit for measuring Ecosystem Services at the site scale. This project is led by the University of Cambridge and involves a partnership between the University of Cambridge, Anglia Ruskin University, The UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Birdlife International and the RSPB, funded through the Cambridge Conservation Initiative (CCI) Collaborative fund from April 2010 to May 2011. From May 2011 the project was extended with funding from AXA until 2013 and a recent (June 2012) further grant from the CCI. New partners include the Cambridge Coastal Research Centre and the Tropical Biology Association. I have led development of the water services section of the toolkit. The whole toolkit will become available on a website in late 2012 and covers water services, carbon services, wild harvested goods, cultivated goods and recreation.

Prior to joining Anglia Ruskin University I was a senior research associate in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge where I jointly coordinated, with Professor Keith Richards, three EU-funded research projects that studied the ecology, hydrology and restoration of European floodplain forests. The most recent of these projects, FLOBAR2 ‘FLOodplain Biodiversity And Restoration’, carried out research on floodplain ecosystems in France, Sweden, Germany, the UK and Canada and its findings are summarised in a document called “The flooded forest”. I have also carried out research on the downstream impacts of dams on riparian and deltaic ecosystems in Canada and Kenya.

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.

Matt has recently returned to FFI (after 9 years working at UNEP-WCMC) as Senior Director of Conservation Programmes, and is responsible for FFI’s work in all four of its regional focal areas; Africa, Asia-Pacific, Americas & Caribbean and Eurasia. Matt is a conservation biologist by training, and after graduating from Cambridge spent ten years at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology working on park-people relations, ecotourism development and human-wildlife conflict in Africa and Asia.  

Between 2004 and 2007 Matt was at FFI leading a programme on biodiversity and human needs, the precursor to the current Livelihoods and Governance programme, as well as establishing FFI’s Rapid Response Facility for World Heritage Sites in danger. At UNEP-WCMC, Matt was initially Head of Ecosystem Assessment and subsequently he became part of the Senior Management Team. His work included developing and delivering global biodiversity indicators and building national capacity to mainstream biodiversity into wider development decision-making. 

Matt has occupied roles on various UN and international fora as well as on the CCI Council, and amongst other things is currently an advisor to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands and a member of the judging panel of the World Responsible Travel Awards. He has worked and travelled in over 60 countries.

I am an environmental economist working in policy and advocacy and my main interest is around how to address the failure of our economic system to take the importance of the natural world into account. I have worked on a wide range of policy issues in the UK and internationally, having previously worked at UNEP-WCMC and the World Bank as well as being seconded to the UK’s Natural Capital Committee.

I lead the RSPBs work on natural capital and am currently on secondment to the Cambridge Conservation Committee where I am co-managing the CCI’s new programme on biodiversity in natural capital.

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.

Claire Brown, BSc (Hons), BA, PhD is an Australian national, has an extensive background in ecology, policy and law. Claire overseas a portfolio of projects which focus on ecosystem services and assessment, most notably the Sub-global Assessment Network, the UK National Ecosystem Assessment and its follow on, ecosystem service indicators and a project looking at biodiversity and commodities and developing furture capacity. When not at work Claire enjoys sewing and crafting or sitting back with a glass of wine, friends and good conversation.