Kerry Waylen

Why do our conservation efforts often fail to meet all their goals? There is a growing sense that we need to better understand how we should conserve rather than what we should conserve. My PhD research aims to make a contribution on this subject, with the goal of informing equitable and effective conservation policy and practice.

I am investigating the approach of community-based conservation projects in developing countries, which aim to take into account the needs and views of local people in conservation projects. An emphasis on community involvement is now popular, but has so far produced mixed results. One problem may be a tendency for these projects to overlook non-use values and cultural motivations as an incentive for behaviours that affect the environment.

Community-based conservation projects usually focus on providing practical benefits - such as money or alternative livelihoods - as an incentive for local people to support conservation. This focus is understandable - areas of the greatest biodiversity are also often coincident with areas of great poverty - but it may overlook many other motivations that can drive behaviour. For example, if hunting is a key recreational activity, providing alternative livelihoods will probably not affect it. Such motivations can range from religious to recreational, from ethical to aesthetic. They can have 'good' or 'bad' implications for sustainability of resource use and conservation, and can also affect the perceptions of interventions for conservation.

Understanding the effect of these cultural motivations and non-use values of nature is obviously a broad topic, so my PhD is multidisciplinary, and has three components which sample aspects of the issue to indicate its importance.

• The first part of my research is a meta-analysis, based on a systematic review, to collate and analyse past experiences. This study looks to see if there is any evidence that cultural characteristics, and project consideration (or not) to these motivations, has any effect on project success.
• The second part of my research, building on these findings, investigates if an emphasis on a culturally important but non-practical motivation for conservation (religion) can have any success in changing conservation views or behaviours. This is a study based in Kalmykia, Russia, a poor rural republic where poaching of the Saiga antelope (Saiga tatarica) is threatening the species with extinction. (Click here for more information about the Saiga and conservation activities by our research group). Buddhist environmental teaching is one of several interventions for Saiga conservation, and my study looks for evidence of its effects, using a qualitative approach.
  
• My third strand of research is focused at the level of the individual, and has methods based in the quantitative social sciences. It investigates if an individuals' general views (on ethics, life priorities), views of nature (e.g. if it is simply a resource for use, or something more), or non-use values of species, can affect intention to support a hypothetical conservation project. This case study is based in a field site in Nepal, at the Seti Khola valley, near the biodiverse Pipar forest in the Annapurna Himalayas, Nepal (of interest to the World Pheasant Association for over 30 years).

I hope that my research will provide some indication of whether conservation projects should routinely pay more important to culture and non-use values of nature, as well as practical benefits, when working with local people for conservation. In addition the second and third strands of research provide data of immediate practical benefit to ongoing conservation interventions in each location. For more information about my approaches or findings please do contact me.

From October 2006 until 2009 I am undertaking PhD research at Imperial College London, based at the Macaulay Institute, Aberdeen. I am supervised by Dr EJ Milner-Gulland, Dr Anke Fischer and Dr Kevin Urama at the Macaulay Institute, and Dr Phil McGowan at the World Pheasant Association (of which I am also a Research Associate). My research is funded by a studentship provided jointly by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). I have also received some support for fieldwork from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, the Macaulay Development Trust and The Dudley Stamp Memorial Trust of the Royal Society.

August 2006+ Research Associate of the World Pheasant Association. Review of the Importance of Galliformes for Humans.
World Pheasant Association

July 2006-Sep 2006 Project Consultant, Workshop on CITES & Livelihoods, Cape Town
CITES & Livelihoods Workshop report

Oct 2005-June 2006 Coordinator of Well-being Review / Research Assistant at BGCI (Botanic Gardens Conservation International)
Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)

Oct 2004-Sep 2005 Msc in Environmental Technology, Imperial College London. Ecological Management Option, Social research project based in Trinidad. NERC Supported.

June 2004-Sep 2004 Project Assistant, the Precautionary Principle Project
The Precautionary Principle Project

Oct 2003-May 2004 Review of Sustainably Managed Wild Plants in Trade, consultant report for Fauna & Flora International (FFI). Survey and review of Bats as Bushmeat.
Fauna & Flora International (FFI)

Sep 2000–Jun 2003: MA (Hons) Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge. Principle topics in ecology and zoology, research subjects included Eastern Whipbirds in Australia.

Waylen, K.A., McGowan, P.J.K., Pawi Study Group & Milner-Gulland, E.J. (In press). Ecotourism positively affects awareness and attitudes but not conservation behaviours: a case study at Grande Riviere, Trinidad. Oryx.

Waylen, K., 2006. Botanic gardens: using biodiversity to improve human well-being. Medicinal Plant Conservation, 12: 4-7.

Waylen, K., 2006. Botanic gardens: more than just a pretty place, Oryx 40(3): 259-260.

Waylen, K., 2006. The Importance of Galliformes for Humans. Unpublished report for World Pheasant Association, Fordingbridge, UK.

Waylen, K., 2006. Botanic gardens: using biodiversity to improve human well-being. Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Richmond, UK. ISBN 1905164084. www.bgci.org/wellbeing/report

Waylen, K., 2005. Turtles & tourism, perceptions & Pawi. Perceptions of natural resources and the effect of ecotourism, in Grande Riviere, Trinidad. Environmental Technology MSc thesis, Imperial College London, UK. (pdf)

Waylen, K., 2004. The sustainable management of wild plants in trade. Unpublished report for Fauna & Flora International, Cambridge, UK.

Waylen, K., 2004. Bats as bushmeat: a survey by Fauna & Flora International. Phelsuma, 12:147-148.

Abdullah, A et al., 2004. Comparative studies on the structure of an upland African stream ecosystem. Freshwater Forum, 21: 27-47.