Professor Julia Patricia Gordon Jones

Professor in Conservation Science

Overview

I am interested in making conservation more effective by doing better evaluations of conservation policy and practice. I am both interested in ex-post evaluations with existing (almost inevitably flawed) designs and data, but I am even more interested in looking forward and finding opportunities to design interventions and data collection in parallel to allow a clearer understanding of "is conservation working"?

I greatly enjoy working with people, methods and approaches from across disciplinary divides.

I have a strong interest in Madagascar where I have worked, with many Malagasy colleagues, for 24 years on issues around conservation and development.

Read about our research group (Conservation@Bangor).

I am co-lead of the College of Environmental Science and Engineering research theme on Conservation and Restoration of Resilient Ecosystems.

I am currently the Prince Bernhard Chair in International Nature Conservation at Utrecht University. The Prince Bernhard Chair (funded by WWF-The Netherlands) is appointed for a term of five years. The purpose of the Chair is to serve international nature conservation through strengthening the link between conservation science and practice, while opening new avenues for multidisciplinary approaches. You can watch my inaugural lecture here.

I was the director of the Sêr Cymru Low Carbon Energy and Environment Research Network Wales.

I am chair of the College of Engineering and Environmental Science Research Ethics Committee at Bangor University.

Contact details: Thoday Building, Deniol Road, Bangor University, LL57 2UW, 01248 382650

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email: julia.jones@bangor.ac.uk

Research

I am PI of 'Conservation Agreements in the Comores: Evidence-informed forest conservation and restoration for people and biodiversity' (funded by the Darwin Initiative Innovation fund). This project is in collaboration with the Comorian conservation NGO Dahari.

I was PI of the Forest4Climate&People project which was funded by the CLARE programme (UKAid). The aim is to ensure forest carbon programmes are more effective (can lock up more carbon) and pro-poor (contribute to poverty alleviation and avoid avoid negative impacts). This project is continuing as MIRARI (lead by Sarobidy Rakotonarivo).

I am PI of the GCRF-funded project 'The perfect invader? Exploring impacts on human health from a rapidly invading crustacean in one of the world’s poorest countries'.

I am director of the Sêr Cymru National Research Network for Low Carbon, Energy and Environment. We work with the Welsh Government and partner universities to support Wales’ world-leading research in low carbon energy, nature-based solutions to environmental challenges, the bioeconomy, and sustainable food production.

I was a co-I of the Nature4SDGs project which was funded by NERC and research councils in Sweden and India. We used multiple existing datasets to explore the relationship between nature and wellbeing, and how this varies for different people in varied parts of the Global South.

I was the PI of the p4ges project (can paying 4 global ecosytstem services reduce poverty?). Our central research question was: Can capturing global benefits from ecosystems (specifically carbon sequestration/storage and biodiversity) reduce poverty in low income countries, given bio-physical, economic and political realities? Our aim was to influence the development and implementation of international ecosystem service payment schemes such as REDD+ in the interests of poverty alleviation.

I was PI of The Leverhulme Trust and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)-funded research project: "Can payment for ecosystem services deliver environmental and livelihood benefits?" The project was a three-year-long series of investigations in collaboration with local NGO partners in Bolivia and Madagascar. Our aim was to provide research to inform the development and implementation of ecosystem service payment schemes as well as other incentive-based approaches so as to maximise their potential in contributing to environmental conservation and improving the welfare of local people.

Teaching and Supervision

I teach the modules DXX1002: Environmental Management and Conservation; DXX4016: Conservation Science; DXX3304: Tropical Conservation Management (Madagascar field course); DXX3510/11 Advances in Conservation

Research areas and keywords

Keywords

  • GE Environmental Sciences - conservation science, local people, protected areas
  • GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography - Madagascar, social impacts, payments for ecosystem services, REDD+
  • QL Zoology - conservation ecology, monitoring, crayfish

Research outputs (125)

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Prof. activities and awards (8)

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Accolades (1)

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