Supporting IPBES

After an early career as a research ecologist studying farmland wildlife populations in the UK, I developed and directed a programme of multidisciplinary conservation projects in over 100 countries for an international conservation organisation (ICBP). In 1996 I was appointed Chief Executive of the global conservation partnership, BirdLife International, before joining CCI as its first Director in 2009.
I am broadly interested in interdisciplinary approaches to managing the natural environment. This includes: the interface between science, policy and practice; environmental governance and capacity development; the relationships between business and biodiversity; and developing innovative solutions for the conservation of nature. I was the Executive Director of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, based in the University of Cambridge Judge Business School from 2009 – 2020.

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.

Professor Bhaskar Vira FAcSS is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and Environmental Sustainability, and Professor of Political Economy at the Department of Geography, a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College, and an Honorary Fellow of St John’s College.

Trained as an economist, Professor Vira’s research focuses on the political economy of land-use and landscape level strategies, water use and management, forest management, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and human well-being, with a specific focus on South Asia. He works with a number of PhD students and early-career researchers on his broad interests in the political economy of environment and development, and has collaborations with colleagues in both academic and non-academic institutions in South Asia and around the world. Professor Vira is currently leading a major initiative on Decent Work and Youth Livelihoods. He has led large-scale applied research projects that involve interdisciplinary conversations across the natural and social services, and contributes regularly to policy advisory processes across the science-policy interface.

Andy has worked in conservation for 45 years, in both the Government and NGO sectors. His passion is for evidence-led decisions that contribute to nature’s recovery. Andy has led programmes on Protected Areas and species conservation, and he led the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). As Cambridge Conservation Initiative came into being, Andy became its inaugural Chair of Council. He now works on a major donor development in the Executive Director’s Office.

Andy is a birder, visiting over 50 countries in search of birds, with his data contributing to online BirdTrack (in the UK) and eBird worldwide. Andy is also a sculler.

Pamela is Director of Programmes at the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre with responsibility for the strategic oversight of the Centre’s portfolio of conservation projects. Prior to this as Natural England’s Area Manager for Norfolk and Suffolk, she managed a team delivering marine and terrestrial biodiversity conservation advice with responsibility for the management of 15 National Nature Reserves and the implementation of the England Coast Path. She was Chair of Cambridge Conservation Forum from 2009 to 2013, founding the CCF Women in Leadership Network in 2013 with the aim of addressing the gender disparity in the leadership of conservation and provide support for women in and aspiring to move into leadership roles . Whilst Head Gardener at New Hall (Murray Edwards College) in the late 1980s, Pamela introduced gardening for wildlife and taught ecology courses in the University of Cambridge Botanic Garden. Pamela teaches creative stakeholder engagement on the University of Cambridge MPhil in Conservation Leadership.

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.

David spent nearly 25 years leading the RSPB’s scientific programme, both in the UK and internationally. His role was to develop the strategic direction for RSPB’s science, ensuring that its policies and practices were evidence-based. He undertook his PhD in the Zoology Department of Cambridge University, and a post doc at the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat in the Camargue, and at the Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford. Subsequently David worked for the British Trust for Ornithology for seven years before joining the RSPB. He is a former Chair of the European Birds Census Council and of the Bat Conservation Trust, UK’s leading bat conservation organisation. He was a member of CCI Council for nearly a decade, serving as Vice-Chair and Chair. He served as interim CCI Executive Director in 2023/24.

Andreas Kontoleon is Professor of Environmental Economics and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and Director of Studies, Trinity College. He holds a PhD in Economics (University College London), a MPhil Economics (University of Cambridge) and a BA in Economics and Philosophy (Athens). Professor Kontoleon’s research areas include environmental economics and regulation, micro-econometrics, applied welfare economics, policy evaluation and experimental economics, law and economics and methodological issues in economics. He has mostly worked in the fields of biodiversity, climate change, energy, food security, public health and poverty alleviation. He is co-moderator of BIEOCON, the largest academic network on the economics of biodiversity conservation. He has published on various topics including the value of wildlife species and habitat, the economic evaluation of land use policies in developing countries, the economics of GM foods, as well as papers on conceptual issues from the fields of welfare economics and law and economics issues. His more recent research focuses on using formal policy evaluating techniques (including randomized controlled trails and behavioural experiments), remote sensing data and social network data to assess conservation, livelihood aid, climate change and health policies in developing countries.

For more information see: Professor Andreas Kontoleon

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.

I am the Director of the Tropical Biology Association (TBA) – an NGO that is building the capacity of conservation scientists and managers in Africa and SE Asia.  The TBA has trained over 2,800 conservation scientists from 70 countries world-wide and has a 90% contact rate with its trainees.  Many are now leading conservationists, or hold senior positions in government and non-government organisations.  Recently, my team and I have developed a new programme of online training and are exploring the huge potential that the online environment offers for bringing conservation to life.

I hold a BA and a DPhil in zoology from the University of Oxford.   I am also a founding member of the Cambridge Conservation Initiative and Cambridge Conservation Forum and an organiser of the Student Conference on Conservation Science.