Ny medarbeider – Jarrod Cusens

Foto: Dagmar Egelkraut

Hi, my name is Jarrod and I have rejoined BIO as a postdoctoral research fellow after a short break since defending my PhD here in May. I am an interdisciplinary researcher working in social-ecological systems dabbling in various approaches to address sustainability challenges. My main interest is understanding the what and the why of our values for nature, and the role that those diverse values play in the way that we conserve nature (or not). In my PhD work I used mixed methods integrating biophysical and socio-cultural methods to map ecosystem services in Norway’s first and only UNESCO biosphere reserve.

I am now working under a Biodiversa+ project BECOME (Biospheres as Effective COnservation MEasures). In BECOME we use the world network of UNESCO biosphere reserves to understand how to manage synergies and trade-offs between conservation objectives and human development. The work will involve a longitudinal to study the changes in various conservation indicators across the world network of biosphere reserves. A key part of the work will be to take a contemporary view of ‘conservation’ by taking a social-ecological system approach and focussing on ‘People and Nature’ which is consistent with IPBES and the recently agreed Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Importantly, my main goal in the next three or so years is to finally be able to type ‘biosphere reserve’ instead of ‘biopshere resvere’.

 

 

Kind regards,

Jarrod