Nils Bunnefeld

Nils Bunnefeld

Professor in Conservation Science

University of Stirling

Stirling, UK.

About

I first started to be interested in sustainable management of wildlife populations when I did a masters project on lynx in Norway in 2002. The question of how to sustainably manage a population of carnivores sounded challenging to me but the masters was too short to really dig into this. Thus I went and did a PhD on red grouse in England to learn more about monitoring, setting quotas, implementing harvesting and the role of modelling in this process. Over the years, I got more and more interested in the idea to understand and model the interaction between wildlife population dynamics and human decision making. This sparked more recently a focus on conflicts between those that are keen to conserve biodiversity and those that use nature, wildlife and land, for example to produce food. I now look at conflicts from many different angles, working with social scientists, economists, psychologists and modellers. I work in many areas including Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Gabon and Cambodia.

I supervise/co-supervise the following students:

Matt Nuttall (2017-ongoing) Sustainable decision making in dynamic landscapes supporting biodiversity and people in the Eastern Plains Landscape of Cambodia. Role: main supervisor (with Dr Kate Abernethy, Dr Phil McGowan, University of Newcastle, funded by NERC DTP IAPETUS)

John Wilson (2016-ongoing) Determining the impact of future touirsm scenarios on sustainable use of mountains in the face of climate and land use changes for Norway's emblematic wild reindeer. Role: main supervisor. (with Dr Bram van Moorter, Dr Vegard Gundersen, NINA, Norway. Funded by NINA and University of Stirling)

Christopher Orbell (2016-ongoing) Ecological connectivity between Gabon's protected areas. Role: main supervisor. (With Dr Kate Abernethy, Dr Philip Henschel, Panthera. Self-funded)

Chris Pollard (2014-ongoing) Linking game theory and structured decision making for the resolution of conservation conflicts. Role: main supervisor. (with Dr Juliette Young, CEH; Prof Steve Redpath, University of Aberdeen; Dr Aidan Keane, University of Edinburgh; funded by NERC DTP IAPETUS)

Emma Bush (2013-ongoing) Determining the impact of climate change on the sustianabiltiy of tourism investment and long-term strategic planning for environmental management in Gabon. Role: main supervisor (with Dr Kate Abernethy, Prof Alistair Jump, Dr Daisy Dent, Dr Kath Jeffery, funded by Gabon National Parks and University of Stirling)

Eilidh McNab (2016-ongoing) How deos large scale native woodland restoration affect biodiversity. (with Prof Kiirsty Park (main supervisor), Dr David Douglas (RSPB), Dr Darren Evans (University of Newcastle); funded by NERC CASE)

Stephanie Bourgeois (2014-ongoing) Genetics of forest elephants in Gabon: population assignment of ivory and connectivity between national parks (with Dr Kath Jeffery (main supervisor); Dr Ross McEwing and Dr Rob Ogden, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland; funded by Gabon National Parcs, University of Stirling, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland)

William Smith (2015-ongoing) Environmentally sensitive behaviour? Mitigating adverse impacts on capercaillie populations in the Cairngorms National Park (with Dr Madhu Satsangi, Social Sciences, University of Stilring (main supervisor) and Justin Prigmore, CNP authority)

Kathleen Stosch (2015-ongoing) Building resilience to respond to future environmental change across Scottish catchments (with Dr David Oliver (main supervisor), Dr Richard Quilliam)

Tom Bradfer-Lawrence (2015-ongoing) Maintenance of tropical forest bird communities in human-modified landscapes (with Dr Daisy Dent (main supervisor))

Becca Sargent (2017-ongoing) Room to raom and hotspots of conservation conflcts - lions, ungulates and people in the matrix (with Dr Marion Pfeifer, University of Newcastle (main supervisor); Dr Amy Dickman, University of Oxford; Dr Philip Platts, University of York; Dr Nicolas Deere, University of Kent, ; funded by NERC DTP IAPETUS)

Zac Baynham-Herd (2015-ongoing, University of Edinburgh) Resolving the conservationis's dilemma: using game theory to develop stable collaborative conservation strategies (with Dr Aidan Keane (main supervisor), Dr Matt Bell (University of Edinburgh), Prof Steve Redpath (University of Aberdeen))

Petra Lackova (2016-ongoing, University of Aberdeen) The adaptive management of sea-eagle conflicts (with Prof Steve Redpath, Prof Rene van der Wal, Dr Justin Irvine, Dr Antonia Eastwood, Dr Juliette Young)