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Cambridge Forum for Sustainability and the Environment

 

Biography

Jasper's PhD research investigates the expertise that lies at the interface between science and policy for the global governance of biodiversity and ecosystem services. It will focus on the emergence of the recently established biodiversity assessment initiative, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

IPBES heralds an exciting development in the global governance of nature. The synthesis of policy-relevant scientific, social and indigenous knowledge on the biodiversity of life on earth, the broad networks established through the IPBES process, and its capacity building initiatives provide new and important linkages across the domains of science and policy.

The IPBES 2014-2018 Work Programme is fundamentally supported by the expertise of numerous multi-disciplinary expert groups. The sheer complexity of biodiversity knowledge makes these experts essential to IPBES's work and they are charged with translating complex information between communities of scientists, policy makers and broader publics. In this process, policy support tools, such as biodiversity models and future scenarios, represent valuable mechanisms for experts to transform knowledge into useable formats for decision makers and are the focus of two IPBES Expert Groups.

Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of Science and Technology Studies, this research will examine the sociology of expertise across the biodiversity knowledge and policy interface. From the production of models and future scenarios to their incorporation into global assessments, this research will investigate how expertise might be most effectively and appropriately deployed to secure the impact of biodiversity research.

PhD student in the Cambridge Conservation Research Institute,
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
 Jasper  Montana
Not available for consultancy

Affiliations

Person keywords: 
the governance of biodiversity and ecosystem services, including expertise, policy initiatives and institutions
environmental governance
science communication
the sociology of knowledge
biodiversity conservation