January 8, 2013 in Publications
In a recent Editorial I co-authored for the Asian Journal of Conservation Biology we touch on the issue of wildlife trade in Asia and discuss how the consumer must be the central part of our strategies to manage this trade that threatens many species worldwide . Read it here.
April 12, 2012 in Publications
Images of tigers and elephants are among the most common threatened mammals used by conservation organisations as ‘flagships’ to promote fundraising – but new research led by the University suggests that other threatened ‘Cinderella species’ could prove equally effective.
At the moment, only 80 flagship species are used by these NGOs, and more than 60% of their campaigns only raised funds for that species itself, the study found. These flagship species tend to have a high body mass and forward-facing eyes – because people find large animals with a human-like face more appealing. But, by using a similarity score approach, the a team led by Dr. Bob Smith identified that there are other species which, like Cinderella in the children’s story, share this aesthetic appeal but are currently overlooked.
You can find my latest publication at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00229.x/abstract
Full press release: http://www.kent.ac.uk/news/homepagestories/mammalspeciespromotingconsevationfunding/2011
February 1, 2012 in Publications
In a newly published article in the peer-reviewed blog Biodiversity Science I argue for the need to include marketing principles in our strategy to preserve biodiversity and discuss some of the most important pitfalls of engaging with stakeholders outside the scientific community. Read it here!
January 2, 2012 in Publications
I was the lead author on a correspondence piece entitled “Selecting marine invertebrate flagship species: Widening the net”, published in the lastest issue of Biological Conservation. This piece is a reflection on the selection of conservation flagship species for groups traditionally deemed less charismatic. Read it here!
This correspondence piece was a reply to the article “The giant squid Architeuthis: An emblematic invertebrate that can represent concern for the conservation of marine biodiversity” published in July also in Biological Conservation