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Past Members 

Benjamin Ho (2015/16)

I am in my final year of the Bachelor of Environmental Studies at the National University of Singapore. My Honours Year Dissertation (co-supervised by Edward L. Webb) involves a global literature review of wildlife farming, ranching, and commercial captive breeding.  Some proposals have suggested that these supply-side interventions can help to reduce consumer pressures on wild populations of threatened species.  My project investigates the related evidence basis, looking at the conservation impacts on wild populations and habitats, and the underlying pathways shaping these impacts. This project is a collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society (Madhu Rao). 

 

Sophie Banks (2015/16)

I am a graduate Zoologist from the University of Liverpool, currently studying for a Masters in Ecology & Conservation at Lancaster University.  My undergraduate dissertation worked to enhance museum visitors' awareness of illegal wildlife trade, with a particular focus on pangolins, and is on view at the Victoria Gallery & Museum Liverpool. 

 

I have a particular interest in wild animal trafficking, the prevention of the exotic pet trade, and human-wildlife conflicts, and my Masters dissertation (co-supervised by Aidan Kean) looks at wildlife trade regulation under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).  Under the CITES agreement, threatened species can be listed on different Appendices, each of which involves different trade restrictions.  Appendix listings, however, are not fixed, and several hundred species originally listed on Appendix II have been “up-listed” to Appendix I. I am using key informant interviews and statistical analyses of existing data to examining the reasoning behind these up-listing decisions, and to look for evidence of their conservation impacts.  This project draws on the collaboration of IUCN's Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Group (Rosie Cooney) and the IUCN Global Species Programme (Dan Challender).

 

In my spare time, I intern with the Liverpool Bay Marine Life Trust, surveying cetaceans in the Northwest. Our work was presented at the 2015 European Cetacean Conference.

Evie Scott (2016/17)

I am an Ecology and Conservation undergraduate at Lancaster University untaking a dissertation project exploring the scientific justifications of legal trade in wild, ornamental orchids from Southeast Asia. 

 

The Convention of International Trade of Endangered Flora and Fauna (CITES) regulates international wildlife trade, including all orchid species. Most orchids are placed into CITES Appendix II that requires an export permit. This permit requires a Non-Detriment Finding (NDF) from CITES Scientific Authorities to demonstrate that trade isn’t detrimental to species survival. Evidence suggests that very few of these NDFs are being conducted, and that the vast majority of trade of wild orchids from Southeast Asia can probably be not scientifically justified. My project aims to collate data about commonly traded wild orchids from Southeast Asia, evaluate a subset of species using the IUCN Red list criteria, and look at how this information might inform NDFs. I am also conducting interviews with orchid experts, and identifying previous NDFs made for orchids, to see if NDF guidelines are suitable for their current purpose, and/or what they should look like in the future.

 

 

Jack Butlin (2016/17)

I am an Ecology and Conservation undergrad studying at Lancaster University. My third year dissertation project will take into account the necessity to monitor, classify and prevent the illegal trade of endangered and threatened plants. The project will revolve around a recent comprehensive study of cacti conservation completed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). I will make use of this extensive database to analyse the players involved in cactus trade and the regions where it has the greatest impacts. I will also analyse the life histories of the threatened species to hopefully establish reasons for their decline (e.g. endemism) in the hopes of informing policy makers in the future.  This project is co-supervised by Barbara Goettsch of IUCN.

 

Jorge Perez (2016/17)

I am from Venezuela, where I obtained Law degree at the Universidad Catolica Andres Bello. Being from Venezuela has significantly shaped  the way I see and understand the world, and one of my biggest and more profound interests is to help reconcile environmentalism with individual freedom.  I am currently undertaking a MA in Environment and Development, and my dissertation research centers on the underlying drivers of environmental degradation in Canaima National Park, Venezuela, by analysing different stakeholders' narratives. I will be departing back to my country for fieldwork on June 26th 2017.

Emily Malsack (2017/18)

I am a graduate from Wisconsin Lutheran College with a bachelor’s degree in Marine Biology. I also spent a semester of my undergrad attending St. George’s University in Grenada. I have previous international research experience in the Caribbean, particularly in Grenada and Jamaica. In Grenada, I compared the benthic and fish compositions, populations, and diversities in MPAs to non-MPAs. In Jamaica, I assisted in a project that aimed to show a relation between reef structural diversity and fish diversity on patch reefs.

 

I am currently pursuing a Masters by Research in Environmental Science at Lancaster University, where I will be researching the aquarium fish trade in the Philippines. My focus will be on which species are being targeted. I hope that this project will lead to a greater understanding of how the aquarium trade affects both the fish and human populations of the Philippines as well as what needs to be done to protect the marine environment from dangers such as poor fishing practices and overexploitation.  You can read more about my project here.

Rebecca Turley (2017/18)

I am a graduate from the University of Exeter with a BSc in Animal Behaviour. At Lancaster I will be undertaking a Masters by Research project, studying the trade of aquarium fish in the Philippines. My research will focus on the social aspects of this practice, with the fisherman and other parties involved in aquarium fish trade.   This will include research on harvest regulations, including how/whether these rules are enforced, and how they are understood by different actors. This will indicate where conservation issues may lie, and what potential alterations could be made to help conserve these fish species and their marine habitat, alongside fisher livelihoods.  You can read more about my project here.

 

Before beginning my masters I spent three months volunteering in the Philippines with LAMAVE, researching the feeding of whale sharks for tourism. My time here involved completing daily photo ID surveys of individuals in the area and observing the interactions of tourists with the sharks. I am particularly interested in studying marine life and the consequences that human interference can have.

Alina Iorga (2017/18)

I am an MSc student in the Lancaster Environment Centre, studying Conservation and Biodiversity and a graduate from the University of Hull with a BSc in Geography. During my undergraduate degree I focused more on natural sciences and did my dissertation on pollen analysis to produce an environmental reconstruction of the vegetation in a catchment in the North York Moors. For my master’s degree I knew I wanted to focus on conservation and throughout the course I explored the social science side of conservation which was very different from what I’ve done before, but I knew it was important to pursue as it would allow me to have a more complete understanding of the field. I have a keen interest in illegal wildlife trading but also found the conservation debate to pique my curiosity and since I was delving into new topics I decided to do my dissertation on ethics in conservation social science research. I found this subject matter to be very timely and I am hoping that once my project is completed the results will be compelling enough to encourage a more open discussion on the sort of ethical challenges researchers are facing as well as draw attention to areas of improvement for ethics in conservation research.

 

 

 

Marleen Schutter (2016-2020)

I am studying the process of value articulation for ecosystem services in policy settings. Rather than assuming that there is such a thing as a “true value” for all the benefits humans derive from nature, I am interested in the policy process of constructing values for ecosystem services, and the roles that different actors play in this process. I am asking questions such as: who exercises power, how is knowledge being used and what does this mean for environmental justice? I am using theories from sociology, such as Actor-Network Theory, to construct social networks, and a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Before coming to Lancaster, I completed an Msc. in Environment and Resource Management at the VU University in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For my Master’s dissertation I did an ecosystem service assessment of the marine environment in the Cayman Islands, where I also worked as a kayaking guide in the ecotourism industry.

Isabella Pedrini (2018-2022)

Ph.D. Researcher

I am a Ph.D. student at the University of the State of Santa Catarina, Brazil, co-supervised by Jacob Phelps.  I am studying the valuation of environmental damages for liability purposes.  I hold a law degree from University of the South of Santa Catarina and completed an MSc. in Administration, in which I proposed a framework for conducting damage claims for the local Prosecutor’s Office. As a lawyer, since my graduation, I have been focusing on issues related to environmental liability mechanisms in Brazilian legal context. I have a particular interest in researching how judicial and extrajudicial proceedings are conducted when it comes to assessing environmental damages.

 

 

 

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