We work on environmental governance of conservation in the Global South, with a strong focus on applied research.  As such, we prioritise not only novel academic findings, but also conservation action via partnerships with NGOs, courtroom litigation, IUCN specialist groups and capacity building.   Our major themes include:

 

Conservation Litigation

We convene the Conservation-Litigation.org network of scientists, lawyers and conservationists working to understand and operationalise liability laws to help protect biodiversity. This work integrates comparative legal analyses, political ecology and restoration ecology with real-world  litigation in courtrooms around the world.

• Fajrini, R., et al. Poacher pays? Judges' liability decisions in a mock trial about environmental harm caused by illegal wildlife trade. 2022. Biological Conservation 266:109445.

• Phelps, J., et al.  2021. Environmental liability litigation could remedy biodiversity loss. Conservation Letters 14:e12821. 

• Pascual, M., et al. 2021. Building a global taxonomy of wildlife offenses. Conservation Biology 35:1903-1912. 

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Wildlife trade governance 

This involves research on a range of taxa, from elephants to orchids.  It explores the ways in which the legal and illegal trade of plants and animals are governed. This includes work on wildlife enforcement, sustainable use of wild resources and wildlife farming.

• Phelps, J., et al. 2016. Tools and terms for understanding illegal wildlife trade. Frontiers in Ecology and Environ. 9:479-489.

• Jain, A., et al. 2021.Understanding Singapore's dynamic parrot trade ecosystem. Oryx 1-11

• Paudel, K., et al. 2020. Conservation enforcement: Insights from people incarcerated for wildlife crimes in Nepal. Conservation Science and Practice 2:e137.

• Ticktin, T., et al. 2023. Wild orchids: A framework for identifying and improving sustainable harvest. Biological Conservation 277:109816

• Phelps, J., Carrasco, L.R., Webb, E.L. 2014. A framework for assessing supply-side conservation interventions. Conservation Biology 28:244-257.

• IUCN SSC Orchid Specialist Group--Global Trade Programme.

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Perceptions and governance of complex environmental problems

This research looks at how stakeholders across scales of governance perceive complex challenges such as peatland fires and illegal wildlife trade.  

• Schutter, M.S. et al. 2021. Disentangling ecosystem services preferences and values. World Development 146:105621

• Carmenta, R et al. 2017. Perceptions across scales of governance and the Indonesian peatland fires. Global Environmental Change 46:50-59

• Biggs, D., et al. 2017. Breaking the deadlock on ivory. Science 358:1378-1381.

 

Incentive-based conservation

Our work also considers the roles of incentives in conservation governance.  This includes research into incentive-based conservation schemes, such as REDD+, blue carbon and Payment for Ecosystem Services.

• Schutter, M.S. et al. 2021. The blue economy as a boundary object for hegemony across scales. Marine Policy 132:104673.

• Friess, D.A. et al. 2015 Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) in the face of external biophysical stressors. Global Environmental Change 30:31-42.

• Phelps, J. et al. 2010. Does REDD+ threaten to recentralize forest governance? Science 328:312-313

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