Diogo Veríssimo
I was born in Lisbon, Portugal, to a family with deep roots in farming and the Portuguese countryside.
I decided early on that keeping biodiversity around was probably a good idea and this passion for nature makes my work simultaneously my favourite hobby. I am also a great lover of salted cod, cheese and football, although usually not at the same time.
I am conservation biologist turned conservation marketer. As I grew as a conservationist I realised that human behaviour is the key driver of all conservation threats and so decided to work towards behaviour change for biodiversity conservation. I see marketing theory and principles as one particularly exciting way of achieving that goal, as it combines applied knowledge gathered by practitioners to the academic work done in disciplines such as psychology, sociology or anthropology.
My work focuses on the design and evaluation of behaviour change interventions targeting the consumers of wildlife products being illegally traded.
This is part of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Illegal Wildlife Trade.
Smith, Robert & Salazar, Gabby & Starinchak, Joseph & Thomas-Walters, Laura & Verissimo, Diogo. (2020). Social marketing and conservation. In book: Conservation Research, Policy and Practice Here
Doughty, Hunter & Verissimo, Diogo & Tan, Regina & Lee, Janice Ser Huay & Carrasco, L & Oliver, Kathryn & Milner-Gulland, Eleanor. (2019). Correction: Saiga horn user characteristics, motivations, and purchasing behaviour in Singapore. PloS one. 14. e0226721. 10.1371/journal.pone.0226721.
Burgess, Gayle & Olmedo, Alegria & Verissimo, Diogo & Waterman, Carly. (2020). Changing consumer behavior for pangolin products. Pangolins Science, Society and Conservation, Biodiversity of World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes , Pages 349-36610.1016/B978-0-12-815507-3.00022-8.
Jarić, Ivan & Courchamp, Franck & Correia, Ricardo & Crowley, Sarah & Essl, Franz & Fischer, Ivan Jarić Franck Courchamp Ricardo A Correia Sarah L Crowley Franz Essl Anke Fischer Pablo González‐Moreno Gregor Kalinkat Xavier Lambin Bernd Lenzner Yves Meinard Aileen Mill Camille Musseau Ana Novoa Jan Pergl Petr Pyšek Klára Pyšková Peter Robertson Menja von Schmalensee Ross T Shackleton Robert A Stefansson Kateřina Štajerová Diogo Veríssimo Jonathan M Jeschke (2020). The role of species charisma in biological invasions. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 10.1002/fee.2195.
Verissimo, Diogo & Vieira, Sara & Monteiro, Domingas & Hancock, Joana & Nuno, Ana. (2020). Audience research as a cornerstone of demand management interventions for illegal wildlife products: Demarketing sea turtle meat and eggs. Conservation Science and Practice. 2. 10.1111/csp2.164.
Brittain, Stephanie & Ibbett, Harriet & de Lange, Emiel & Dorward, Leejiah & Hoyte, Simon & Marino, Agnese & Milner-Gulland, Eleanor & Newth, Julia & Rakotonarivo, O. Sarobidy & Verissimo, Diogo & Lewis, Jerome. (2020). Ethical considerations when conservation research involves people. Conservation Biology. 10.1111/cobi.13464.
McDonald, Gavin & Wilson, Molly & Verissimo, Diogo & Twohey, Rebecca & Clemence, Michaela & Apistar, Dean & Box, Stephen & Butler, Paul & Cadiz, Fel & Campbell, Stuart & Cox, Courtney & Effron, Micah & Gaines, Steve & Jakub, Raymond & Mancao, Roquelito & Rojas, Pablo & Tirona, Rocky & Vianna, Gabriel. (2020). Catalyzing sustainable fisheries management though behavior change interventions. Conservation Biology. 10.1111/cobi.13475.
Esmail, Nafeesa & Wintle, Bonnie & t Sas-Rolfes, Michael & Athanas, Andrea & Beale, Colin & Bending, Zara & Dai, Nina Ran & Fabinyi, Michael & Gluszek, Sarah & Haenlein, Cathy & Harrington, Lauren & Hinsley, Amy & Karivki, Kennedy & Lam, Jack & Markus, Matthew & Paudel, Kumar & Shukhova, Sofiya & Sutherland, William & Verissimo, Diogo & Milner‐Gulland, Eleanor. (2020). Emerging illegal wildlife trade issues: A global horizon scan. Conservation Letters.
Diogo Veríssimo, Annalisa Bianchessi, Alejandro Arrivillaga, Fel Ceasar Cadiz, Roquelito Mancao, Kevin Green. Does It Work for Biodiversity? Experiences and Challenges in the Evaluation of Social Marketing Campaigns Social Marketing Quarterly
Thomas-Walters, Laura & McNulty, Claire & Verissimo, Diogo. (2019). A scoping review into the impact of animal imagery on pro-environmental outcomes. Ambio. 49. 10.1007/s13280-019-01271-1.
Jones, Julia & Thomas-Walters, Laura & Rust, Niki & Verissimo, Diogo. (2019). Nature documentaries and saving nature: Reflections on the new Netflix series Our Planet. People and Nature. 1. 10.1002/pan3.10052.
Ullmann, Tessa & Verissimo, Diogo & Challender, Dan. (2019). Evaluating the application of scale frequency to estimate the size of pangolin scale seizures. Global Ecology and Conservation. 20. e00776. 10.1016/j.gecco.2019.e00776.
Thomas-Walters, Laura & Hinsley, Amy & Bergin, Daniel & Doughty, Hunter & Eppel, Sara & MacFarlane, Douglas & Meijer, Wander & Lee, Tien & Phelps, Jacob & Smith, Robert & Wan, Anita & Verissimo, Diogo. (2019). Motivations for the use and consumption of wildlife products. 10.31235/osf.io/7vjrg.
Verissimo, Diogo & Anderson, Sean & Tlusty, Michael. (2019). Did the movie Finding Dory increase demand for blue tang fish?. Ambio. 49. 10.1007/s13280-019-01233-7.
Lennox, Robert & Verissimo, Diogo & Twardek, William & Davis, Colin & Jarić, Ivan. (2019). Sentiment analysis as a measure of conservation culture in scientific literature. Conservation Biology. 34. 10.1111/cobi.13404.
t Sas-Rolfes, Michael & Challender, Dan & Hinsley, Amy & Verissimo, Diogo & Milner-Gulland, Eleanor. (2019). Illegal Wildlife Trade: Patterns, Processes, and Governance. Annual Review of Environment and Resources. 44. 1-28. 10.1146/annurev-environ-101718-033253.
Greenfield S.J. & Veríssimo D. (2019) To what extent is social marketing used in demand reduction campaigns for illegal wildlife products? Social Marketing Quarterly, Vol 25 (1). https://doi.org/10.1177/1524500418813543
Salazar, G., Mills, M., & Veríssimo, D. (2018) Qualitative Impact Evaluation of a Social Marketing Campaign for Conservation. Conservation Biology. doi:10.1111/cobi.13218
Veríssimo, D. (2019) The Past, Present, and Future of Using Social Marketing to Conserve Biodiversity. Social Marketing Quarterly, Vol 25(1):3-8.
Veríssimo, D. and Wan, A. K. (2019) Characterizing efforts to reduce consumer demand for wildlife products. Conservation Biology, Vol 33(3): 623-633. doi:10.1111/cobi.13227
Veríssimo, D., Schmid, C., Kimario, F. F. & Eves, H. E. (2018), Measuring the impact of an entertainment-education intervention to reduce demand for bushmeat. Anim Conserv. doi:10.1111/acv.12396
