Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Alleviation

Dilys Roe is a senior researcher in IIED's Natural Resources Group and leads their work on biodiversity. Since 2004, Dilys has coordinated the Poverty and Conservation Learning Group - a network of organisations that is intended to improve dialogue on poverty-conservation linkages. While the majority of Dilys' work focusses on biodiversity-development/conservation-poverty issues, she also has a research interest in community-based natural resource management and community-based conservation; ecosystem-based adaptation and high biodiversity REDD+. Joanna Elliott is Vice President for Programme Design at the African Wildlife Foundation and a Visiting Fellow in IIED's Natural Resources Group. Joanna has worked extensively in the field and at policy levels on biodiversity-development linkages, and has led applied research programmes on land use economics, conservation enterprise development and measuring the socio-economic impacts of conservation. Chris Sandbrook is a Lecturer in Conservation Leadership at the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). In this role he helps to run the Masters in Conservation Leadership course at the University of Cambridge. Chris has diverse research interests, including the implications of market-based approaches to conservation such as ecotourism and REDD, the relationship between great ape conservation and poverty alleviation, and the values held by those working in conservation. Matt Walpole is Head of the Ecosystem Assessment Programme at UNEP-WCMC. In this role Matt oversees a diverse portfolio focusing on improving the uptake and use of information on biodiversity and its values, including its role in supporting livelihoods and poverty alleviation, amongst policymakers. Matt's research interests include a focus on interdisciplinary approaches to conservation research and practice and exploring the widespread links between poverty and conservation.