Research

The research of the Global Change and Conservation lab is grounded in the study of social–ecological systems, where ecological processes, human practices, institutions, and values interact across space and time. We work across multiple biomes and cultural contexts, using comparative perspectives to understand how conservation challenges and responses emerge under different ecological, social, and historical conditions.

Our team is fundamentally interdisciplinary, with ecology as a shared foundation. Many group members are trained as ecologists who integrate approaches from the social sciences, working alongside psychologists, anthropologists, geographers, and interdisciplinary environmental scientists. This diversity allows us to address conservation challenges that are simultaneously ecological, social, and political.
Social–Ecological Systems Across Biomes, Cultures, and Taxa

Empirically, our research spans forests, rangelands and coastal and marine systems, from tropical to boreal regions, with work across Africa, Europe, Asia, and South America. We collaborate closely with Indigenous Peoples and local communities, including groups such as the Tsimane’, Maasai, Daasanach, and Taita, explicitly departing from fortress conservation models that separate people and nature, and recognising how exclusionary and neoliberal conservation practices have often marginalised local knowledge, reshaped values, and generated conflict and polarisation.

Across these systems, our work focuses primarily on large mammals, such as large carnivores (e.g. bears and lynx, cheetah and leopard), and herbivores (elephants or wild forest reindeer), while also addressing bird and reptile communities and broader ecosystem processes. This taxonomic focus reflects our interest in species of conservation concern, and often species that play key ecological roles and/or are central to conservation conflicts, governance debates, and cultural values.

Our research approaches span multiple scales. We work from biochemical and genetic methods, through field‑based ecological approaches (such as vegetation sampling, behavioural observations, camera trapping, or radiotracking), to landscape‑ and regional‑scale analyses (remote sensing and geospatial modelling). Social‑science research is grounded in field‑based and participatory methods, including interviews, questionnaires, participant observation, participatory mapping, photovoice, and futures‑oriented workshops, enabling us to integrate ecological evidence with human perspectives.