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Understanding the ecology of large carnivores in increasingly complex, multi-use conservation landscapes is crucial for their effective conservation in 21st century Africa, as is determining which management strategies can reconcile conservation with economic growth and human development. Reliable population monitoring techniques are essential to achieve both these goals. This thesis aims to address key knowledge gaps in the above themes, through a study of an intact large carnivore guild in Tanzania's Ruaha-Rungwa landscape. First, I apply occupancy modelling to sign-based data to investigate the distribution and habitat use of large carnivores, their prey, and human activity across the complex, at multiple spatial scales (Chapter 3). I show that species are limited by anthropogenic, management, and biotic factors, revealing the importance of integrated research and conservation planning for large carnivore management. I also identify a novel threat to Tanzania's biodiversity, in the form of increased habitat degradation associated with trophy hunting block abandonment. To investigate interspecific interactions within the large carnivore guild, I then apply conditional co-occupancy models to the same dataset, again for multiple species and at multiple scales (Chapter 4). I find that African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) avoid lion (Panthera leo) at both coarser and finer spatial scales, with effects being strongest in disturbed areas. Findings indicate that interspecific pressures can have a strong influence on the habitat use of large carnivores in multi-use landscapes, and must be appreciated in conservation planning. To then complement these insights with finer-scale metrics, I apply spatially explicit capture-recapture (SECR) models to camera trap data to investigate the effects of habitat and land management strategies on lion population density (Chapter 5). Lion exist at highest densities in well-protected, prey-rich environments, including in community-managed areas, and at intermediate densities in miombo woodlands and in trophy hunting areas. I show that the method employed has the potential to be an important tool for lion population management. In Chapter 6, I use a range of data to provide insights into the status of Ruaha-Rungwa's cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) population. Findings reveal an extension of known geographical range for the species, and provide some of the first evidence that miombo woodlands may be important for cheetah across its eastern African range. I also show that collaborations with tourism operators hold potential for cheetah population monitoring, and I identify regional research priorities for the species. Finally, I contextualise my findings by reviewing two decades of peer-reviewed African large carnivore population assessments, and identifying trends, biases, and opportunities in research (Chapter 7). I find that studies are biased towards southern and eastern Africa, particularly South Africa and Kenya, and that population assessments are significantly positively biased towards lion, and significantly negatively biased against striped hyaena (Hyaena hyaena). Most populations are understudied, and opportunities exist for research on most species and in most countries, and for increased inclusion of local authors and capacity building in range countries. Overall, the collective findings of this thesis highlight the necessity for increasingly integrated and synthetic research, as heterogeneity and complexity of conservation systems increases, and for an increased appreciation of the effects of anthropogenic impacts on large carnivores, even within protected areas. They also show that conserving large carnivore guilds will require robust population monitoring, and, more broadly, a shift towards more inclusive approaches to conservation that can secure wildlife without sacrificing human well-being and socio-economic development.

Globally, hundreds of thousands of wildlife rangers patrol wide areas within protected areas every day, observing biodiversity and illegal activities. Data collection by rangers therefore has enormous potential to track changes in biodiversity and threats to it, at scale and with little additional cost. However, ranger patrols are biased in space and time and detections are imperfect, so what rangers observe may not capture underlying reality well. Furthermore, even when monitoring results are reliable, they might not be used effectively to inform conservation management. Effective ranger-based monitoring also requires active engagement by the people collecting and using data (rangers and managers). In this Thesis I investigated factors affecting (a) the reliability of ranger-based monitoring data and, (b) the effective use of these data within conservation management. I used the monitoring and management of elephant poaching in the Mana-Chewore World Heritage Site, Zimbabwe, as a case study and combined statistical, mathematical, and qualitative methods. I began with a participatory modelling approach in which rangers and managers helped me to build and evaluate models of the spatial distribution of elephant poaching in Mana-Chewore, with statistical methods to account for patrol bias. Combining quantitative models and interview responses allowed for more robust inference in the face of uncertainty, with proximity to water emerging as the strongest driver of poaching (reflecting both poacher and elephant behaviour). Next, I developed mathematical simulations to quantify how patrol characteristics (effort, spatial coverage, etc.) interacted with poaching dynamics to affect the power of ranger-collected data to detect underlying spatial and temporal trends in poaching. Power to detect trends was low in many scenarios, with some non-intuitive results (such as spatially targeted patrols achieving power similar to spatially random patrols). Strategies required to achieve robust results depended heavily on monitoring objectives (the magnitude of change in poaching that managers wish to detect, for example). To complement these quantitative insights, I interviewed 23 rangers working in Mana-Chewore to investigate their perceptions of patrol-based data collection. I found that their occupational culture (including a strong sense of duty and deference to authority), as well as their awareness of how their data were used, shaped their engagement with monitoring. In a second qualitative analysis, I interviewed nine park managers and 17 senior staff of the national wildlife authority to investigate the extent to which ranger-collected data were used to inform anti-poaching. Managers valued and made basic use of ranger-collected poaching data but did not systematically analyse trends in these data to inform their anti-poaching strategies. Managers felt that management based on intuition, experience and more reactive data-use was more familiar and dependable, and therefore did not embrace data-based adaptive management. For ranger-based monitoring to contribute effectively to biodiversity conservation, practitioners and scientists must acknowledge, understand, and account for uncertainty in both monitoring data and the behaviour of those collecting and using it. Clearly defining monitoring and trend detection goals and critically evaluating the likelihood of achieving these goals is essential, as is meaningfully engaging the perspectives of rangers and managers. More generally, this research demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinarity in the study of socio-ecological systems, and the power of models for both understanding and dealing with the uncertainty inherent in these systems.

Conflict with humans over livestock is a major threat to lion (Panthera leo) populations across their range in Africa. Lions kill livestock, a major source of livelihood for marginalised communities, and farmers kill lions in return. How to effectively mitigate this conflict remains a major conservation challenge till this day. In this thesis, I evaluate the effectiveness of the Long Shields Community Guardian programme (in short: Long Shields programme), a community-based, non-lethal human-lion conflict intervention that seeks to mitigate the impacts from lions by encouraging farmers to adopt behaviours that reduce the risk of livestock depredation. Specially, I examine (a) baseline attitudes towards lions and lion conservation; (b) attitudes towards lions before and after the implementation of the Long Shields programme; (c) trends in livestock losses to lions before and after the implementation of the Long Shields programme, and (d) barriers that prevented the adoption of the Long Shields programme. My results reveal that farmers' attitudes towards lions are strongly negative and seem to be influenced by perceived losses rather than the actual losses to lions. Attitudes varied based on the geographic location where the farmer lived as well as the farmer's ethnic group (Chapter 2). Subsequently, I detected a positive shift in attitudes of farmers that were part of the Long Shields programme (i.e., treatment group), including those that were part of the control group but exchanged information with their peers in the treatment group, than those of farmers in the control group (Chapter 3). My results also revealed that farmers that were part of the Long Shields programme experienced a significant reduction (up to 40%) in livestock loss to lions since the start of this programme in 2013, compared to the period 2008-2012 before the programme was initiated, while livestock losses increased for farmers that were not part of this programme. The number of lions killed annually due to retaliatory killing by farmers also declined by 41% since the implementation of the programme in 2013 (Chapter 4). My results also revealed that although the Long Shields programme was effective and well perceived by the majority of participants, a minority of farmers in the programme area continued to suffer higher livestock losses to lions than did others. Continuance of higher livestock losses to lions, despite all efforts from the programme personnel, seemed to be influenced by various barriers such as poor communication, negative attitudes towards the programme, and lack of trust in the programme itself, and in some cases, the programme personnel (Chapter 5). Although here we focus on human-lion conflict, our evaluation design and overall findings are applicable to other human-carnivore conflicts situations in other areas.

Illegal and/or unsustainable wildlife trade affects wildlife globally. To address this issue, a plethora of demand reduction efforts have been carried out. However, shortcomings in behaviour change interventions targeting wildlife consumers have been widely noted, and these likely compromise conservationists' capacities to assess, and stem, unsustainable use of wildlife. In disciplines, such as public health, which include behavioural approaches, behaviour change interventions have been extensively implemented and offer useful insights for addressing wildlife trade. Thus, for this thesis I aimed to design, implement, and evaluate an evidence-based behaviour change intervention that robustly applies relevant approaches found in behavioural science-informed disciplines to the field of wildlife trade. For this work I targeted saiga horn usage in Singapore. The saiga (Saiga tatarica) is a Critically Endangered antelope from Central Asia whose horn is used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to treat fever and heatiness (a TCM state of illness with symptoms like cough). Chapter 2 shows that not only is saiga horn commonly used in Singapore, but that many Chinese Singaporeans consider saiga horn a product option they use most often; and that middle-aged Chinese Singaporean women are among the largest consumers and are the most likely to purchase saiga horn for other people. Perceived efficacy and recommendations from others, are the top stated reasons for using saiga horn. Chapter 3 highlights that there are many interlinked influences affecting saiga horn usage among middle-aged Chinese Singaporean women, and that some of these influences, particularly related to their societal-level perspectives and health information sources, would be important and feasible to leverage in a behaviour change intervention. Chapter 4 details the implementation of a carefully disseminated, socially-framed, online intervention targeting saiga horn usage among middle-aged Chinese Singaporean women. This chapter shows how concepts around repeat message exposure, news spread, and social reinforcement were employed to produce positive immediate online audience response to an intervention message. Chapter 5 reveals how the highly pervasive online intervention resulted in some measurable behavioural impacts on middle-aged Chinese Singaporean women's usage of saiga horn, as well as impacts on their awareness of saiga antelopes. Though this chapter also discusses heterogeneity in impact, where limitations arose in the intervention, and where relevant future research could improve upon this work. Chapter 6 looks at how this thesis ties with wider discourse around behaviour change interventions in demand reduction, how conservationists can improve this arena, and some potential directions for future research on this study system. In sum, this thesis helps to fill a key gap in our understanding of effective, evidence-based, large-scale approaches that can be feasibly implemented to induce change among unsustainable wildlife trade consumers.

With increasing awareness of the scope for social science techniques to be tools for delivering conservation impact, it is timely that conservation psychology be developed as an applied discipline. In seeking to understand why people behave in the ways that they do, tools and techniques from applied psychology can be used to encourage pro-conservation behaviour, and emphasising these practical outputs is key to the urgently needed wider uptake of this currently fringe discipline. At present, few studies within the field of conservation research adopt social psychology frameworks and apply them to in situ conservation problems. This is a damaging omission: as a discipline which revolves around the many undesirable outcomes of human behaviour, conservation would do well to capitalise upon these approaches. Currently, good, clear examples of the application of social psychology frameworks to conservation problems, to serve as guides or blueprints for developing the subject, are rare. The aim of this thesis is to use select concepts which have been shown to effectively articulate the reasons behind human behaviour, and apply them to conservation problems in eastern and southern Africa. Focussing on livestock management, predation, and land management issues, I use a social psychology framework to explore the reasons underlying certain conservation-relevant behaviours, and identify how these behaviours might be influenced to achieve conservation ends. I show that a simple theory of planned behaviour framework can explain variation in livestock management behaviour across a socially and ecologically diverse landscape in southern Kenya. I also show that attitudes and social norms, independently, have significant impacts on peoples' behaviour. Furthering this line of enquiry, I demonstrate that the structure of social norms regarding predators and livestock predation are consistent between Kenya and Zimbabwe. Intervention tools using social norms may therefore be applied in a variety of contexts with minimal adaptation, and are consequently suitable for non-expert use. In a final social-norm focussed study in Kenya, I use a quasi- experimental approach to illustrate how norms can be influenced using relatively simple priming techniques, and that these manipulations impact behavioural intention. Together these results demonstrate that social norms are 1) impactful on behaviour, 2) highly conserved, and therefore common approaches can be used across a wide area, and 3) flexible, and can be influenced with relatively basic interventions. I conclude that social norms may provide an easy target for behavioural conservation interventions, and practitioners should consider whether social norms can be used to guide the behaviour of human populations in a range of conservation conflicts. I also examine the sub-structure of attitudes, and conclude that straightforward approaches can be used to break down the 'attitudes' concept into meaningful sub-units; when designing interventions, practitioners may wish to target these sub-components to increase intervention efficacy. Together, this thesis demonstrates that conservation psychology can be a highly applied discipline, and it is only through lack of use by conservation scientists that its many offerings have, until now, been little known in applied conservation practice (although fully recognised in other disciplines such as education and human healthcare). Although this thesis is a brief glimpse into the various useful approaches to behaviour change which may emerge from correct application of social psychology techniques, I hope that my results will encourage future researchers and practitioners that this is an exciting, emerging field which will richly reward far greater emphasis in the sphere of wildlife conservation.

Lowland calcareous grassland (chalk grassland) has suffered extensive habitat loss and fragmentation in the UK over the past century. Outside of Salisbury Plain - the largest remnant area of chalk grassland in Europe - most patches of chalk grassland are now small and spatially isolated, with the median patch size currently less than two hectares. Extensive habitat restoration is needed if we are to conserve species-rich chalk grassland communities. However, this will be difficult to achieve in the densely-populated and intensively-farmed chalk landscapes of Southern England. Therefore, innovative solutions for restoring chalk grassland need to be identified and implemented. In this thesis, I suggest focusing restoration efforts within and along National Trails could be one such approach. In Chapter 2, I identify a number of characteristics of National Trails that make them suitable as a target for conservation resources. I concentrate on three National Trails (The Ridgeway, North Downs Way and South Downs Way) that extend through the chalk landscapes of Southern England - finding that these trails are important for reducing the isolation of remnant fragments of chalk grassland and that increasing the width of well-managed verge habitat along these trails could increase habitat connectivity. In Chapter 3, I drone-map and survey the verges of The Ridgeway. Using this data, I find that the trail currently has an important role in maintaining chalk grassland connectivity and that small areas of targeted habitat restoration along the trail could drive large increases in connectivity. In Chapter 4, I examine a range of management interventions that could be used to restore grassland verges along National Trails. I find that a mixture of simple management approaches can restore species-rich chalk grassland verges within a short timeframe. Overall, these results suggest that focusing conservation efforts along National Trails could improve the connectivity of chalk landscapes while simultaneously delivering a range of public benefits.

A complex nexus of concerns is often attendant upon cases of international trade in wildlife products. Concerns may include: species conservation, livelihoods, personal freedoms, animal welfare, and politics. Regulatory decision-making regarding wildlife trade is rarely straight-forward, given the multitude of (often conflicting) perspectives manifest in such debates. The international trade in African lion (Panthera leo) skeletons, of which over 6000 have been legally exported from South Africa to Asia since 2008, is used as a case study of a multi-faceted contemporary wildlife trade debate. This thesis examines the lion skeleton trade debate both for insight into public decision-making in wildlife trade regulation and with the aim of contributing empirical information to further understanding of the trade in lion skeletons and body-parts. The thesis begins analysis of the lion skeleton trade in Chapter 1 by outlining major arguments present in the lion skeleton debate and demonstrates the inherently ethical nature of the debate, whilst showing how the use of formal argument analysis can provide clarity in public decision-making. To achieve this Chapter 1 details 10 generalisable lessons that can be applied to any ethical analysis. Through argument analysis a number of empirical information gaps in lion trade debate arguments were identified. Three of these gaps are addressed in the thesis' central chapters. Firstly, in Chapter 2, I investigate preferences for lion or tiger (P. tigris) bone wine products from farmed or wild sources amongst the urban public in the consumer countries of China and Vietnam, and tested for the effect of demographic and attitudinal variables on those preferences for bone wines. Results indicate that tiger is greatly preferred over lion and that for second choices of bone wine product respondents will elect to switch between species over changing the farmed or wild origin. I discuss the findings in the context of the potential for farmed lion bone to reduce exploitation of wild felids. I then, in Chapter 3, looked to field reports of lion mortalities to assess the extent of targeted illegal killing of wild lions for bones and body parts, and explore trends over time, in two major lion population strongholds: finding that the majority of body part removals were opportunistic and there was no evidence for systemic targeted killings of lions. Finally, in Chapter 4, I focused on concerns surrounding the differentiation of wild from captive-bred lion bone and tested whether an emerging technology, DART mass spectrometry, could be used to distinguish between such sources of lion bone. Preliminary analysis showed that DART mass spectrometry could be used to differentiate between a batch of captive-bred lion bones and a batch of wild bones: indicating that this technology has potential for use in the investigation and regulation of captive-bred lion bone trade. I therefore discuss the results with regard to the enforcement of legal lion bone trade. Following exploration of new empirical information, I return in Chapter 5 to consideration of decision-making and regulation of the lion skeleton trade. I argue that the lion trade debate typifies decision-making under deep uncertainty; whereby conclusions of arguments are rendered perpetually uncertain due to the complexity and unboundedness of the system in question. After the revelation of deep uncertainty I conclude by articulating sets of values which I believe would best benefit from adjudication in the making of future policy decisions regarding lion farming and trade.

In recent years, there has been a rethinking of the role of disturbance regimes in nature conservation: from exceptional and destructive events to be controlled and/or avoided, to key ecological processes to be nurtured and choreographed. These regimes concern the spatiotemporal dynamics of ecological disturbances, understood here as events that disrupt the structure of an ecology, community or population, causing profound changes in an ecosystem. The rethinking of their role precedes but resonates with current enthusiasms for proactive and experimental modes of conservation, such as rewilding. This thesis draws on three case studies (the New Forest, Knepp Castle Estate and Dundreggan Estate) to explore the ontological, epistemic and socio-political implications of rewilding for the governance of forest disturbance regimes in the UK, particularly through the use of large herbivores. Drawing upon relational understandings of nature, space and time, it develops an understanding of disturbance regimes as process and practice. It first examines how rewilding departs from orthodox biopolitical modes of governing life and the ontological politics at the interface between these various modes. To this end, it attends to the ways in which disturbances have been historically understood and how these understandings have come to shape their governance. Second, it explores the knowledge practices through which ecologists and forest managers know and enact disturbances, comparing a traditional 'prescriptive' approach with rewilding. It argues that in practice rewilding is multiple, in contrast to rewilding discourse. Finally, it maps the different and sometimes conflicting social, economic and cultural values associated with working with natural processes, exploring the political ecologies of governing disturbance regimes. It argues that controversies around forest management pertain to a large extent to contrasting perceptions of different types of 'work' within the idea of working landscape and how they are 'naturalised'. In the conclusion, the thesis explores three empirical and conceptual contributions of these findings for those seeking to understand the logics of rewilding and the processes, practices and dynamics by which nonhuman forms and processes are governed in a post-Natural and uncertain future. First, by deploying a relational approach to the governance of disturbance regimes and by focusing on a long-term disturbance, I draw out the relevance of temporality for thinking through and with disturbances as social and ecological processes. Second, by drawing attention to the intertwining of bio- and socio-political regimes, I propose a reframing of (European) rewilded landscapes as working landscapes. Finally, by attending to the intricacies of practice, I argue that rewilding praxis is multiple and hybrid. It often involves compromises and is shaped by past governance histories and the broader political and social context.

The study of mesopredators, their guilds, and conservation has had little attention in the tropics of Southeast Asia. A particularly interesting group, from the point of view of their ecological community and because of their generally threatened status, is the Felidae. This thesis reports an intensive camera-trapping study of small-medium sized wild felids in the Kerinci Seblat landscape in west-central Sumatra. Samples were drawn from seven study areas across a diversity of habitats occupied by clouded leopard, golden cat, marbled cat, leopard cat, and their prey. The papers comprising this thesis report on the ecology, behaviour, population status and trends, core areas and habitat connectivity of this predator- prey community, and prioritizing conservation in a multi-species management approach. Specifically, this thesis has five main results: (i) revealed spatial and temporal interactions between clouded leopard, golden cat, and their respective prey through performing Bayesian two species occupancy modelling and temporal overlap analyses; (ii) estimated population densities of clouded leopard, in the context of human activities, by implementing Bayesian Spatially Explicit Capture Recapture (SECR) and identified and quantified illegal human activities detected by camera traps; (iii) estimated occupancy states as an indicator of clouded leopard and golden cat population dynamics from consecutive surveys in 2009-11 and 2014-16 and anthropogenic pressures from deforestation in the surrounding areas; and (iv) identified high priority areas within and outside protected area networks through estimating multi-species habitat use and least cost path and kernel density estimate analyses for defining core areas and corridor networks. Integrating these four research themes, this thesis contributes to absent information on the felid mesocarnivores of Sumatra, and offers analytical methodologies for assessing their ecology, behaviour, conservation, and management that can be applied throughout the tropics.

Biodiversity is severely threatened by human activity, with one of the greatest threats coming from agriculture. To reduce the impacts of agriculture on biodiversity, one conservation strategy is to exclude strips of land with herbaceous vegetation from production, termed field margins. Conserving field margins provides a valuable habitat for plant and animal species, and is therefore predicted to boost biodiversity. However, despite being a widely implemented conservation strategy, regular monitoring of plant diversity in field margins is lacking, and the ecological impacts of field margin management are not well understood. This thesis aims to further our understanding of ecologically effective ways to monitor and manage field margin plant diversity, based on three years of fieldwork across four farms in Oxfordshire, England. Based on this fieldwork, four main findings are presented. Firstly, I found that over two years of surveying only a limited amount of variation in plant community composition can be explained by margin-level characteristics. This suggests that margin-level management can only have a limited impact. Secondly, I observed little spatial variation in plant communities between different farms in the same county. This suggests that management recommendations for plant diversity in field margins can be generalised across farms within a region. Thirdly, I observed higher butterfly species richness in field margins with higher plant species richness and intermediate vegetation height. This suggests that management of plant height and diversity will have a positive effect on butterfly diversity. Finally, I found that assessing plant diversity using either transect or quadrat survey methods resulted in biases in the plant species recorded. This suggests that plant surveys in field margins should use both transects and quadrats, to reduce bias in plant species lists. Together, these findings provide ecological evidence to improve conservation efforts for farmland biodiversity, through monitoring and management of field margins.

Governments, businesses and lenders worldwide are increasingly adopting a ‘No Net Loss’ (NNL) objective for biodiversity, often partly achieved through biodiversity offsetting as the last step in a hierarchy of mitigation measures (avoidance, minimisation, remediation and offsetting). Offsets aim to balance residual losses of biodiversity caused by development in one location with commensurate gains at another. For offsets to be effective, they need to be designed and implemented to satisfy ecological, economic and social needs. Incorporating the values that people place on nature, including biodiversity, into offset designs can help to make them more sustainable and equitable. While ecological challenges to achieve NNL are debated, the associated gains and losses for local people have received less attention. International best practice suggests that offsets should make local people ‘no worse off’, but there is a lack of clarity concerning how to achieve this with regard to people’s use and non-use values for nature, especially given the inevitable trade-offs when compensating biodiversity losses with gains elsewhere. This is particularly a challenge for countries such as Uganda, where poor people depend on natural resources; badly planned offsets can exacerbate poverty, and development and offset impacts can vary spatially, temporally, and by location, gender and livelihood. I conceptualise the ‘no worse off’ principle, and propose a definition for determining whether people are ‘no worse off, or preferably better off’ in the context of biodiversity NNL: project-affected people (appropriately aggregated) should perceive the component of their wellbeing associated with biodiversity losses and gains to be at least as good as a result of the development project and associated biodiversity offset, throughout the project lifecycle, than if the development had not been implemented. I then explore how this ‘no worse off’ principle and definition can be operationalised, using the Bujagali and Isimba Hydropower Projects and the associated Kalagala Offset in south-eastern Uganda as a case study. I use a human wellbeing framework to evaluate local people’s perceived social impacts (both positive and negative) of the two hydropower projects on their perceived wellbeing. I explore how these perceived impacts vary geographically and between socio-demographic groups, thereby providing insight into what appropriate aggregation unit (individual, household, interest group, village or region) could potentially be used when measuring impacts on people’s wellbeing. Once the perceived social impacts have been identified, I use a mixed-methods approach to understand the cultural dynamics of the study area and, in particular, the perceived impacts of the development projects and offset on local people’s nature-based cultural values. This aims to address the lack of empirical research on incorporating people’s non-use cultural values associated with nature into a biodiversity NNL strategy for individual developments, including biodiversity offsetting. Lastly, I use a stated preference choice experiment to solicit local people’s preferences for different proposed compensatory activities as part of a biodiversity offset, with the aim of improving the benefits that offsets generate for people. This provides an empirical example of how choice experiments can be used to inform socially acceptable biodiversity offset designs. The research findings highlight the importance of designing project-level NNL strategies that account for the use and non-use values that local people attribute to nature. This will help improve the social acceptability of a combined development and biodiversity offset, and provide insight into how governments, financial institutions and developers can design, implement and maintain equitable and sustainable project-level NNL strategies that protect nature but also leave local people ‘no worse off, or preferably better off’.

This thesis analyses the economics of rhino and elephant conservation in light of the recent upsurge in poaching in Africa. Each chapter focuses on a particular component of the new poaching crisis. Chapter One examines the development of market power by poachers and the implications for how owners should use patrols to defend their rhino. A dynamic model is developed and simulated. The owner is the Stackelberg leader, investing in anti-poaching patrols to protect rhino from poaching cartels who strategically compete in a closed-loop Nash Equilibrium 'game'. Understanding the industrial organisation of cartels is shown to be of paramount importance in designing optimal anti-poaching policy because, perversely, patrol spending works to increase strategic behaviour between cartels. Chapter Two considers whether establishing a legalised trade in rhino horn could benefit conservation. A dynamic model is formulated and simulated. It is found that, even if the institutional arrangements are robust enough to support legalised trade, the economics suggest trade is not guaranteed to improve the conservation prospects of the species. In the absence of private sector speculation, a legalised trade could be used to sustainably conserve a rhino population when extinction would otherwise occur. However, with the introduction of speculation, speculative attack on the remaining stockpile is highly profitable, leading to extinction of the species. Chapter Three determines the consequences of increasingly fragmented conservation policy. A new panel of elephant census data for 1,262 reserves across 37 countries in Africa is used to examine the effect of varying anti-poaching policy across borders. An international border is found to result in an elephant population up to 2.5 times smaller than a reserve without a border. In addition, evidence that poachers arbitrage across reserves is found. The policy consequence is clear: as populations become increasingly fragmented, transfrontier conservation policy becomes more important.

Conflicts over the management of large carnivores, and their impacts on humans reduces well-being for human communities and threatens the persistence of large carnivore populations around the world. Improving our understanding of the complex ecological and social systems that create these conservation conflicts is vital if they are to be resolved. In this thesis we investigate ecological and social aspects of human-carnivore interactions in land bordering Ruaha National Park in Tanzania where there are conflicting views on how large carnivores should be managed. Investigating the spatio-temporal patterns of carnivore attacks on livestock we found higher risk of attacks linked to increased rainfall, wild prey and proximity to protected areas. We found re-enforced wire enclosures to be more effective at protecting livestock compared to those of traditional construction. Using local ecological knowledge to investigate carnivore landscape use in community land we found occupancy of lions, wild dog, leopard and cheetah higher in the wet season, while hyenas are present all year round. However low detection rates and respondent availability during the dry season restricted our model's ability to accurately predict carnivore land use. Studying tolerance towards lions and hyenas we found perceived benefits and positive beliefs were the most influential variables for both species, while experience of species and perceived risks only influenced tolerance towards hyenas. Engagements with conservation programs increased tolerance towards lions but had a complex relationship with risk perception for both species, highlighting how conservation interventions can interact with other socio-psychological variables with unexpected consequences. Simulating an African savannah community we found low levels of retaliatory killing of large carnivores drove them to extinction. This, however, had little impact on other simulated populations. We also found small herbivores to be responsible for the most damage to crops compared to large herbivores. This work contributes to our understanding of some of the drivers of the human-carnivore interactions that conservation conflicts are often centred on. We highlight the complexity of these systems and the broad range of tools and disciplines required to study them.

The principal objective of this thesis has been to assess the potential impacts of climate change on hydro-ecology at the regional and basin scale, with particular reference to the associated effects these may have on conservation efforts. Different methodologies are required when considering climate-change impact at regional and basin scales. At the regional scale, the vulnerability of European HydroBasins was determined through the application of a 'top-down' methodology to climate assessment and incorporation of novel approaches in determining both catchment and species sensitivity and resilience to climate change. The congruence between existing European protected areas and catchments most vulnerable to climate change was explored, suggesting fewer than 25% of these catchments are currently adequately included. At the basin scale, a 'scenario-neutral' approach was adopted, and the sensitivity of four key hydro-ecological variables to perturbed climatic drivers identified on a catchment-by-catchment basis in the Thames Basin, UK. Linking these responses to Water Framework Directive thresholds of environmental quality and the application of UKCP09 probabilistic scenarios generated quantifiable estimates of potential ecological alteration under climate change. Protocols were developed to further aggregate these into whole basin summary maps, and congruence between existing protected areas and potential ecological alteration under climate change was explored. The results presented in this thesis should be used to a) re-design the European protected area network to better account for projected climate change, and b) explore the most effective management strategies in mitigating climate change within existing protected areas of the Thames Basin and identify high impact Priority River Habitats for conservation and restoration.

In an environment, the species populations are not only affected by the abiotic factors but also by the interactions between the organisms. In contexts where human-induced habitat loss and anthropogenic disturbances are prominent, inter-specific interaction will undoubtedly increase, at least initially, as wild animals are confined to smaller areas with greater resource limitations. In light of this, a key question of conservation concern emerges: what mechanisms do subordinate predators adopt in order to persist alongside dominant predators when space and prey resources are limited? This thesis, therefore, aimed to investigate interactions of sympatric carnivores (felids and dhole) in the Nam Et - Phou Louey National Protected Area (hereafter NEPL) in northern Lao PDR. The NEPL harbours six felid species (tiger Panther tigris, leopard Panthera pardus, clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa, Asian golden cat Catopuma temminckii, marbled cat Pardofelis marmorata, and leopard cat Prionailurus bengalensis) and dhole Cuon alpinus. Over the past decade, the main threat to the flora and fauna of the NEPL has been the unregulated over-harvesting of animals and plants and forest clearance. This study not only will contribute to our scientific knowledge of NEPL's carnivore species, the findings will also benefit conservation efforts via providing much-needed information regarding their ecology and status to guide decision making. First, I investigated the status of all hypercarnivores and prey species of NEPL (Chapter 2). My results showed that tiger and leopard had been extirpated, most likely due to the rise of indiscriminate snaring. Consequently, clouded leopard and dhole, the largest and most common remaining hypercarnivores. Large ungulate prey species (e.g., gaur Bos gaurus and sambar Cervus unicolor) were rare, whereas smaller ungulate species were relatively common. Overall, NEPL still had rich communities of carnivores and prey. Second, I estimated density trends of clouded leopard, leopard cat, and marbled cat, to better understand what likely happens to smaller felids when the top felid, tiger, disappears from the system (Chapter 3). The findings showed a declining trend in density across the study years for all three felid species, with a stronger rate of decline for clouded leopard and leopard cat. Snaring likely was responsible for the continuing decline of the smaller felids, and this factor was likely to override any potential effects of mesopredator release on their densities and interactions. Third, I assessed spatial and temporal niche segregation, to understand factors facilitating coexistence of all sympatric hypercarnivores (Chapter 4). Dhole and clouded leopard did not have high spatial and temporal avoidance, but presumably had some differences in dietary niches. Asian golden cat adopted a cathemeral activity pattern and is likely to have diet specialisation to co-occur with dhole and clouded leopard. The leopard cat and marbled cat are likely to coexist with the Asian golden cat via prey specialisation whereas leopard cat and marbled cat clearly segregated temporally and potentially by diet. Fourth, I predicted the distribution of suitable habitat across the country for the three largest remaining hypercarnivores: dhole, clouded leopard, and Asian golden cat (Chapter 5). My results highlighted the importance of the National Protection Forest Areas for the conservation of carnivores in the country, especially in the northern provinces and along the central Annamite landscape. Overall, my findings contributed to the knowledge of the ecology and interactions of a diverse carnivore community in northern Laos, and results will be used to guide management plans and conservation efforts for carnivores and their prey within NEPL and other landscapes throughout the country.

Social simulation methods such as agent-based modelling are making inroads into the tool sets of economists and environmental scientists. Responding to critiques of mainstream economic models, agent-based modellers promise increased behavioural realism by modelling the more-than-rational aspects of economic action in socio-ecological systems. This thesis examines agent-based modelling in fisheries management by ethnographically following the efforts of an international scientific consortium to develop an agent-based fisheries model on to the sites of its intended use at the West Coast of the United States. In a dialogue with pragmatic and performative accounts of modelling in science and technology studies, economic sociology, and geography, this project offers an empirically grounded contribution to debates about the politics of knowledge in environmental science and the performativity of economics. The thesis elaborates a relational and materialist account of social simulation and documents how the practices of agent-based modellers are entwined with the politics of fisheries management. The thesis finds that scientific aspects of the agent-based model like agent algorithms and coupling decisions were co-produced with its political context of model use; that efforts to reform the array of calculative practices enacting fisheries economies contend with infrastructural relations between science and policy; and that computational policy optimisation rests on assumptions about policy process that are at odds with its political dimension. As a result, the thesis argues that more-than-rational modelling unsettles rationalist notions of science, economics, and policy, disclosing instead the socio-materiality of scientific modelling, the normative dimension of economic calculation, and the irreducibly antagonistic aspects of politics at work in a scientific effort to reform economic modelling for fisheries management. The thesis concludes by suggesting that recovering the normativity of rational calculation and the politics of knowledge in the analytical framework of economic performativity contributes to understanding the production of economic difference in the context of geographical debates about marketised environmental governance.

This doctoral thesis presents three original research papers investigating aspects of agricultural production in small-farming households in two regions of Ethiopia. While answering specific research questions, the articles are connected and motivated by an interest in essential themes of agricultural development: access to seed, the use and conservation of agrobiodiversity as well as strategies to manage production risk in smallholder agriculture. The first article analyses patterns of agrobiodiversity in three communities with comparatively favourable farming conditions and good market access in the East Shewa zone of Eastern Ethiopia. Using original panel data of more than 300 households collected in 2011 and 2013, the study shows that the least vulnerable households grow a larger portfolio of food crops and wheat varieties. Based on these findings, the role of agrobiodiversity for ex ante risk management and alternative incentives for portfolio diversification are discussed. The second article investigates the effects of a fungal crop disease on agricultural production of households in East Shewa using household level panel data during and after an epidemic outbreak of yellow rust in 2010/11. Findings suggest that while varietal diversity in wheat does not increase, roughly thirty percent of households make changes in their varietal portfolio and reduce wheat cultivation in response to the disease. Disease resistant varieties are only available to 16 percent of all households with preferential access to agricultural resources. The third article presents a mixed methods study of a highly developed informal seed insurance network among subsistence‐oriented small farmers in two communities in the West Hararghe zone of Ethiopia. Based on a survey and interviews with 150 farmers, we find that the vast majority of small farmers actively participate in informal seed assistance by giving or receiving small quantities of seed without compensation. We argue that the seed assistance through gifts is practiced to insure against hunger ex ante and facilitate access to crop genetic resources in a centre of crop origin and diversity.

This research was aimed at determining the ethno-ornithological knowledge of three Mushere villages close to the Dulu Forest, Nigeria to determine whether this might hold potential for developing a local conservation programme to protect the forest. The conservation objective of the research was aimed at determining the drivers of forest degradation, and possible means of mitigation. Using a mixed method approach, quantitative/qualitative data were collected in two years from different demographics (men, women, children, age differentials, occupation, urbanization). Oral interviews, semi-structured interviews, picture elicitation tasks, free-listing exercises and focus group discussions were employed in the data collection process. The findings revealed a relatively low ethno-ornithological knowledge, and a general indifference (ornitho-apatheia) towards birds. Knowledge transmission was predominantly through oral means while TEK acquisition was mainly through vertical and horizontal methods. While adults perceived birds as not valuable, children generally perceived birds as valuable. Cultural utilization and ecological salience were the main drivers of bird naming and knowledge. However, there was a high valuing of the Dulu forest, with the main drivers of the forest degradation being timber extraction. Overall, I concluded that the indifference of the Mushere towards birds revealed a lack of cultural appreciation of birds, leading to little TEK of birds, insufficient to encourage the use of TEK of birds in the conservation of the Dulu forest, and the use of birds as flagship domain for promoting conservation. However, a sustained approach towards encouraging birding activities could improve the perception of birds. I therefore suggest using an ecosystem approach in the conservation of the Dulu forest. Engaging the locals in dialogue, establishing a leadership structure for the management of the Dulu forest, providing alternative means of livelihoods are suggested as ways of mitigating the degradation of the Dulu forest.

The study of conflicts in conservation (also known as human-wildlife conflicts) is a growing field of research in areas where people and wildlife interact, because of the negative impacts each can have on the other. Addressing conflicts is certainly challenging because of the complexities of considering diverse interests from numerous stakeholders and the specific ecological and socio-economic characteristics of a given study system. No matter how complex the system under study is, the aim is in all cases to find effective and sustainable mitigation strategies for local people, as well as for wildlife conservation and local authorities. In this thesis, I look at two of the preliminary steps required to address conservation conflicts and develop efficient long-lasting management solutions: the gathering of ecological data and the assessment of mitigation strategies in the field. To do this, I use two case studies: crop-foraging by African elephants (Loxodonta africana) in northern Botswana, and selective hunting of the red deer (Cervus elaphus) population on the Isle of Rum in Scotland. In Chapter 2, I built a baseline for the level of conflict in the Okavango Delta Panhandle (Botswana) using temporal trends of crop-foraging by elephants as an index of the level of conflict, and subsequently looked at how this relates to trends in agricultural land allocated in the study area, as well as with trends in human and elephant population size. In Chapter 3, I mapped the distribution of the local population of elephants and assessed its interaction with landscape features and sites where crop-foraging events had been recorded. In both chapters (2 & 3) I found that -in general- the number of elephants was not a determinant of the level of conflict in the study area, but that the spatiotemporal distribution of the species as well as the spatial and temporal scales considered were. In the second half of my thesis, I assessed the effects of two common conflict mitigation methods: the use of deterrents (Chapter 4) and lethal control (Chapter 5). I first evaluated the effectiveness of chilli-briquettes in deterring elephants and secondly, I used a modelling approach to predict the demographic effects of increasing levels of selective hunting in a male red deer population. I found that both mitigation methods showed unexpected results, which would not have been detected had I not tested for them. This thesis highlights the advantages of applying methods that are based on informed decisions in areas of conflict, as well as the value of sharing results in conservation management. My findings contribute towards a better understanding of the negative impacts of human-wildlife interactions, which often lead to conservation conflicts, as well as contributing protocols and methodologies that can be adapted and applied elsewhere.

Lion populations across Kenya are threatened, primarily as a result of habitat loss and human persecution in response to livestock depredation. This study provides the first population insights into lions within the Samburu-Isiolo ecosystem; considering both the protected area network and the surrounding human-occupied landscape. These results are particularly pertinent given Kenya's low lion population. The demography of the lion population in the Samburu-Isiolo ecosystem was studied to provide data on the area's basic lion population structure. Due to the small size of the protected areas within the study area, it was expected that lions would frequently move outside the Reserves into the human-occupied landscapes that surround the protected areas and, therefore, their ranging behaviour was also assessed. Community Conservancies exist around the protected areas, where wildlife conservation is encouraged. However, the increasing human and livestock populations within these areas conflicts intensely with the spatial requirement of lions. This has numerous implications; from direct mortality to reducing the opportunities for immigration of new lions into the protected areas, or safe dispersal from them. Therefore, the presence of suitable habitat in one community area adjacent to the protected areas was examined using a Habitat Suitability Model (HSM) in order to explore these issues. The demography of the lions within the study area was found to be comparable to other populations across Africa, although displayed higher sex ratios, and lower cub dispersal figures. Whilst the ranging behaviour of the prides displayed core ranges along the rivers, it was noted that they each had their distinct areas of intensive use. Male ranges were larger than females and shrunk during the drought in 2009 and expanded again in 2010. Despite displaying ranges within the limits of the protected areas, it is known that between 2008 and 2010, 10 lions disappeared and moved outside the protected areas. The HSM showed that highly suitable habitat did exist within the Community Conservancy, highlighting the presence of safe refuges for carnivores, with more suitable habitat found to be available at night compared to during the day. Despite the presence of highly suitable habitat, human-lion conflict was a common occurrence in these areas. Anthropogenic factors will have an impact on the demography of lion populations, whether they exist inside or outside protected areas. If suitable habitat did not exist within the human-occupied landscape, it is expected that there would be reduced immigration of new males, longer pride tenures within protected areas and the potential risk of inbreeding. Conflict mitigation measures are important in reducing human-lion conflict, however, this study also recommends the presence of safe refuges in the form of Conservation Areas within the Community Conservancy network in northern Kenya. The model of Conservation Areas acting as safe refuges is essential for the conservation of lions outside protected areas throughout remaining parts of their range in northern Kenya.

Conservation of biodiversity and sustainable resource use are central aims within ecology. This thesis focuses on the current data and environmental frameworks used to support these aims across different states in Europe. In particular, it examines the impact of geo-political boundaries on data-use, funding and planning for temporal movement of species in response to climate change. It also examines the current environmental framework agreements in Europe and their capacity to deal with trans-boundary aspects of biodiversity change. Through examination of European biodiversity datasets, undertaking species distribution modelling of forest taxa, examining economic data, palaeo-ecological data, and assessing international environmental framework agreements, this thesis identifies a number of important knowledge gaps. Probably unsurprisingly, the distribution of biodiversity in Europe mostly does not match political entities, all of which have individual aims, financial resources, and biodiversity management regimes in place. All have a significant impact on biodiversity conservation planning because i) the use of geo-politically truncated data influences modelling predictions, ii) financial commitment to biodiversity conservation varies between countries influencing success outcomes, iii) biodiversity persistence in current and future climate change does not recognise geo-political boundaries, and iv) many of the key environmental frameworks are implemented within countries and do not considering trans-boundary issues. Overall these findings significantly improve the understanding of conservation and resource management in Europe and fill a number of important knowledge gaps. They highlight the importance of appropriate trans-boundary ecological datasets and the need for more consistency across Europe in financial resources for biodiversity conservation. They also highlight the need for appreciation of areas of high-persistent biodiversity regardless of geo-political boundaries and environmental framework agreements that support cross-border conservation measures.

Tanzania's Ruaha landscape harbours some of the most important carnivore population strongholds in East Africa. However, ongoing human-induced changes of natural habitat expose these carnivore populations to increased anthropogenic pressure, even within protected areas. Such habitat changes can disrupt carnivore distribution and species interactions, which can be detrimental for species conservation. Yet, there is limited understanding about how anthropogenic-related variables influence carnivore occurrence and interspecific interactions in this landscape, which hinders the development of strategies to conserve carnivores. In this thesis, I examined the spatial occurrence of carnivores across the gradient of anthropogenic pressure in the Ruaha landscape and adjacent areas. In the first data chapters I investigated how landscape and human-related variables influenced carnivore site occupancy and interspecific interactions in the Ruaha National Park (RNP), surrounding wildlife management area, and village lands through extensive camera-trapping data. I found a consistent and steady decline in carnivore detections with increasing distance from RNP, especially closer to human households. Large carnivores, specifically, were not detected anywhere in the village lands. There was a notable variation on the influence of anthropogenic and landscape variables to carnivore site use: large carnivores were influenced by prey biomass and anthropogenic variables, whereas mesocarnivores were largely influenced by distance to the Great Ruaha River. In addition, mesocarnivore detections were correlated with those of top-order carnivores. Furthermore, increased probability for interspecific interactions between mesocarnivores was influenced by proximity to households. Overall, I identified that the village lands were likely acting as a hard edge that limited carnivore distribution outside RNP. On my last data chapter, I investigated the determinants of carnivore habitat suitability beyond Ruaha, and generated a predictive map of highly suitable carnivore habitats for the human gradient between the Ruaha and Selous landscapes, using the lion (Panthera leo) as a key-species. Highly suitable habitats were associated with low human population density (< 10 people/km2) and rainfall, and over 75% of these habitats were limited to protected areas, with the remainder patchily distributed across village lands. The results suggested limited potential for landscape connectivity between Ruaha and Selous. Overall, this thesis provides a rigorous assessment of the first comprehensive baseline data of carnivore spatial occurrence within a gradient of anthropogenic pressure in this landscape. The framework presented here can be used to help informing carnivore conservation planning in Ruaha, with applications elsewhere where carnivores and humans overlap.

This thesis is a scientific contribution towards evaluating the effectiveness of Community-based Conservation (CBC) in saving biodiversity, protecting ecosystem services and enhancing human well-being. The impact of CBC interventions carried out by Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust over 109 villages in five conservation areas in Madagascar (Lake Alaotra, Baly Bay National Park, Menabe dry forest, Manombo rain forest, and Nosivolo River) since 1997, were retrospectively evaluated. The evaluation used a quasi-experimental design to contrast changes in a set of biodiversity and human wellbeing indicators in the intervention villages with 109 control villages, which were matched for a range of social and environmental attributes. In Chapter 2, findings suggest that over the period 2000-2014 the CBC approach has impacted the incidence of fire, resulting in a lower rate of increase in fire frequency. Although CBC interventions were not able to reduce forest loss, the rate of deforestation in CBC villages has generally been maintained at lower levels than in control villages. Political disruption, population size and travel cost (access and distance) to the villages were identified as important contributing factors towards an increase in the severity of fires and deforestation while access to mobile phones may help mitigate the pressures. In Chapter 3, results indicate that support to education through CBC interventions is significantly associated with improvements in educational attainment. However, analysis of the historical Index of Health Status at village level did not show evidence that provision of clean drinking water or other health interventions improved public health. In terms of human well-being (Chapter 4), there is no evidence that CBC interventions have any positive impact on the Multidimensional Poverty Index. Since poverty has been identified as a key factor reducing happiness, mutual trust, and power to change local decision-making, the claim that CBC will be effective in enhancing subjective well-being cannot be supported by the evidence from this study. According to the Index of Perception of Valued Ecosystem Services the declines in forest cover between 2000 and 2013 were observed by local people, with people in CBC villages demonstrating a greater propensity to note resulting changes in the provision of ecosystem services. This result could be of value when designing future CBC interventions. Maximum Entropy modelling using a set of environmental GIS layers was performed in Chapter 5 for predicting geographic distribution zones of four globally threatened species living exclusively in the five study areas. Results suggested that over the period 2000-2014 there has been a decline in habitat suitability expressed by a decrease in probability of presence of the species. Vegetation cover is predicted to be the most important factor affecting the variability of species distribution range. Potential factors responsible for the success of some actions and failure, others within the CBC approach are discussed and pragmatic recommendations are given at the end of the thesis. For example, transforming local associations into social enterprise could possibly motivate poorer households to join CBC efforts and thereby improve social and biodiversity impacts in the future.

In the last few decades, a growing literature has examined how biodiversity influences ecosystem functioning. This body of work has greatly improved our understanding of ecosystem functioning and its modulation by biodiversity. In particular, there is nowadays large consensus that biodiversity increases ecosystem productivity, and stabilises ecosystems. Early investigations were largely theoretical or involved simple experiments run in laboratory conditions, but over time biodiversity ecosystem-functioning experiments evolved to more realistic field experiments that better represent the real conditions found in natural ecosystems. In particular, these experiments are often run on larger spatial scales and over longer time frames allowing for the effect of environmental heterogeneity and temporal fluctuations to be explored. The designs of these experiments evolved along with the questions addressed in this field of research. However, the analytical tools used in the analyses of these experiments followed a slightly different path. In particular, most of the metrics currently used to analyse biodiversity ecosystem functioning experiments are not entirely suited to properly deal with the complexity of modern designs as they make a number of assumptions that are not met any more. In my thesis I developed a unified framework, based on the tailored use of Linear Mixed Effects Models, to analyse biodiversity-ecosystem functioning experiments such that the new complexities of these experiments can be taken into account. This thesis aimed to bring the focus of the analysis back to the biological interpretation of the results. I successfully applied my approach to several data sets. The framework developed here is expected to improve greatly our understanding of ecosystem functioning and how biodiversity modulates it. It also sheds new light on past research in this field. The great flexibility of the new approach makes it possible to let these experiments to evolve such that new biological questions can be addressed.

Increasingly unpredictable, extreme and erratic rainfall with higher temperatures threatens to undermine the adaptive capacity of food systems and ecological resilience of smallholder landscapes. Despite growing concern, land managers still lack quantitative techniques to collect empirical data about the potential impact of climatic variability and change. This thesis aims to assess how ecosystem services and function and how this links with biodiversity and human wellbeing in smallholder agro-ecosystems in a changing climate. To this end, rather than relying on scenarios or probabilistic modelling, space was used as a proxy for time to compare states in disparate climatic conditions. Furthermore, an integrated methodological framework to assess ecosystem services at the field and landscape level was developed and operationalised, the results of which can be modelled with measures of wellbeing. Various multidisciplinary analytical tools were utilised, including ecological and socio-economic surveys, biological assessments, participatory open enquiry, and documenting ethnobotanical knowledge. The study was located within monsoon rice farms in the Terai Plains of Nepal, and dry season vegetable farms in Northern Ghana. Sites were selected that are climatically and culturally diverse to enable comparative analysis, with application to broad areas of adaptive planning. The linkages that bring about biophysical and human changes are complex and operate through social, political, economic and demographic drivers, making attribution extremely challenging. Nevertheless, it was demonstrated that within hotter and drier conditions in Ghana long-tongued pollinators and granivores, important for decomposition processes and pollination services, are more abundant in farms. Results further indicated that in cooler and drier conditions in Nepal, the taxonomic diversity of indigenous and close relative plant species growing in and around farms, important for the provisioning of ecosystem services, decreases. All other things equal, in both Nepal and Ghana findings indicate that overall human wellbeing may be adversely effected in hotter conditions, with a potentially significantly lower yields, fewer months of the year in which food is available, higher exposure to natural hazards and crop loss, unemployment, and psychological anxiety. Yet, surveys indicate smallholders continue to maintain a fair diversity of species in and around farms, which may allow them to secure basic necessities from provisioning ecosystem services. Moreover, farmers may employ adaptive strategies such as pooling labour and food sharing more frequently, and may have greater access to communication, technology, and infrastructure. Novel methodological and empirical contributions of this research offer predictive insights that could inform innovations in climate-smart agricultural practice and planning.

Conservation effort and action is limited by resources. In response previous authors have sought to identify priorities for conservation and it has become clear that making decisions about conservation priorities necessitates encompassing the fields of human behaviour and psychology, politics, economics and fundamental ecology. In this thesis I bring together two novel strands of research in this arena, 'conservation marketing' and the identification of priority locations for conservation. In the first part of this thesis I present an analysis of how a representative subset of mammalian species might be prioritised in the context of conservation marketing. I develop a novel collaboration with a market research firm to assess quantitatively which species a large sample of English-speaking people value for conservation, and analyse their choices to reveal the attributes that drive these preferences. Developing this idea, I extend this analysis to all terrestrial mammals to identify potential Ambassadors for conservation marketing campaigns. Felids perform well on metrics of charisma, and for many species of big cat their large biogeographical ranges encompassing many other threatened mammalian species make them good potential Ambassadors. Despite its relative unfamiliarity to the public, the Sunda clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) is among the species identified as a potentially good ambassador for conservation marketing and it is also one that faces severe threats from land use change across its range. The second part of this thesis therefore provides insight into the threats faced by clouded leopards, how these threats impact them, and how they might be mitigated. I develop the first map of predicted deforestation across Borneo and use this to map the historic and future impacts of land-use change on clouded leopard populations (their demography and genetics), taking account of their favoured habitats and its fragmentation. Finally, I compare a number of contrasting policy scenarios to highlight how the existing network of protected areas provides poor coverage for clouded leopards and how new protected areas might improve this. These techniques demonstrate a toolset that can be usefully applied to a wide range of species and habitats in the future.

Land-use change and climate change are considered to be the greatest threats to biodiversity globally. The conversion of natural habitats into agricultural land with remnant patches of the original habitat left embedded within an anthropogenic matrix is one of the main land-use changes. This has been shown to alter species richness and abundance, depending on factors such as remnant area and isolation. Climate change has caused species to shift their distributions, alter their phenologies or risk going extinct. The interaction of habitat fragmentation and climate change exacerbates these problems when the lack of suitable habitat within a species dispersal limits prevents a species from tracking changing climates, forcing its adaptation or extinction. One method attempting to remedy this is to restore habitats in a network across landscapes in order to reduce the isolation between natural communities and increase connectivity across landscape. These areas have been largely assessed using a species-centred approach. In this thesis I investigate these elements of environmental change, and the potential mitigation process of habitat restoration, using a food web and functional approach to assess how these factors affect the structure and functioning of invertebrate communities. In Chapter 2 I describe the results of a landscape scale study into the effects of habitat fragmentation on sub-tropical rainforest communities in Australia. Using cavity-nesting bees, wasps and their parasitoids as a study community I show that fragmentation effects such as fragment area, isolation and edge effects can impact different trophic levels to different extents, but that this does not necessarily result in a change to the ecosystem function of parasitism. Using a field-based manipulative experiment, In Chapter 3 I investigate the effects of altered rainfall regimes which may be a consequence of climate change on host-parasitoid food webs and parasitism in a temperate grassland. I show that changes to precipitation regimes disrupts host-parasitoid synchrony between a common grassland leaf-mining insect Stephensia brunichella and its parasitoid Pholetesor arisba. These changes do not cause food web changes at the scale studied, but demonstrate the potential for climate change to alter host-parasitoid synchrony and hence the ecosystem service of parasitism. Utilising a long-term experiment into the effects of different grazing regimes on the restoration of lowland calcareous grassland in the UK on former arable land, in Chapter 4 I address the impacts of restoration on quantitative food web structure and parasitism. I show that although grazing regime can affect trophic level composition differentially, this does not translate into overall changes in food web structure or parasitism at the field scale studied. Using the same field experiment, and a novel method for assessing soil ecosystem feeding activity by invertebrates, I investigate the impacts of seasonal grazing regime on soil ecosystem function (Chapter 5). I show that the season of grazing has an impact on the vertical profile of soil ecosystem functioning. I discuss the potential implications of this novel finding for the future of restoration studies and the importance of including below ground processes in ecological studies of environmental change. This thesis shows that research into the effects of anthropogenically induced environmental change can benefit from a food web and ecosystem functioning approach. However, experimental field studies at larger spatial scales and the inclusion of species traits are needed to fully address these questions.

Once regarded as little more than simple model systems, microbial communities are now understood to drive major earth processes and patterns of biodiversity. In order to more fully understand them, there is a need to investigate the mechanisms that determine the structure and function of microbial systems. Predator-prey interactions have been studied for a long time in macroecological systems and are known for their role in determining community structure and dynamics. Functional diversity has come to the fore of ecology to take a central role in understanding what links species to biodiversity and ecosystem function. In this thesis I investigated the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of microbial predator-prey communities. I used naturally occurring bacterial communities in combination with co-occurring heterotrophic protists to perform manipulative experiments to investigate: a) the functional diversity of heterotrophic protists and their interactive contributions to ecosystem functioning; b) the effects of bacterial prey community diversity and composition on these attributes of protists; and c) the role of functional diversity in maintaining protist community diversity. I found that not only is it possible to classify functional diversity by species interactions, but that the effects of prey community diversity and composition highlight the flexible nature of this property, particularly in predators. I also found evidence of negative biodiversity-functioning relationships and strong competitive interactions among heterotrophic protists. However, their functional diversity allowed them to maintain higher diversity in disturbed environments. Taken together, my thesis has advanced the understanding of the role of predator-prey interactions and functional diversity in regulating interactions and ecosystem functioning in microbial systems.

In recent years ideas about connectivity have become increasingly influential in theories pertaining to wildlife conservation. These ideas range from concerns with spatial habitat linkages or species' movements, to the forms of connection existing between 'people' and 'nature'. This thesis is concerned with how these various forms of connectivity are enacted in wildlife conservation through varied spatial practices. Following Mol (2002), I suggest that these modes of connectivity are enacted not separately but as a multiple. Indeed, through tracing how connectivity is enacted in a series of conservation situations relating to woodland mammals in England and Wales (red squirrels, pine martens, and wild/feral boar), I suggest that these multiple spatial practices of connectivity shape the biopolitical possibilities for living with non-human life. Since the connectivity multiple is composed, following Latour (2010) I further argue that it can be recomposed. Thus, I make the normative suggestion that contemporary trends in conservation policy (towards larger-scale action, process-based objectives, and neoliberal modes of governance) might be rethought and differently articulated through a conceptual and practical approach I term revitalizing conservation. This thesis thus makes several important contributions to geographic literatures. Following a widespread (re)affirmation of nonhuman agency in social science (e.g. Latour, 2005; Callon et al, 2009; Braun & Whatmore, 2010), and particularly the agential capacities of animals (Wolch & Emel, 1998; Philo & Wilbert, 2000), it foregrounds the role of woodland mammals in enacting connectivity through developing the concept of animal mobilities. Furthermore, it engages with existing work tracing affirmative possibilities for conservation (bio)politics (Whatmore, 2002; Lulka, 2009; Hinchliffe et al, 2005; Hinchliffe, 2008; J.Lorimer, 2010, 2012, 2015), by illuminating the intersection of spatial practices of connectivity, and the potential these offer for alternative modes of 'living with' more-than-human lives.

The Sustainable Seafood Movement's "theory of change" is predicated on using markets to improve the supply of, demand for and governance of sustainable fisheries. Over four articles, this thesis will examine the implications of this approach. Article I evaluates the cultural model of seafood eco-labelling and demonstrates that while the theory of using market demand to motivate fishery improvements has been a powerful incentive, consumers have had a minimal role in incentivising that change. This is validated through semi-structured consumer interviews and structured surveys (n=196), which indicate consumers' general understanding of sustainability issues. Article II examines the roles of actors in the Sustainable Seafood Movement in facilitating the growth of sustainable seafood products in the supply chain, thus explaining how in the absence of large consumer demand, certified sustainable seafood product offerings have continued to grow. Article III examines the private governance mechanisms that the Sustainable Seafood Movement has established in the supply chain and how these are rivalling, complementing and substituting those of state-led fisheries governance mechanisms. At the same time both private and public governance mechanisms continue to monopolise certain spaces, such as flag state authority. Greater coordination between these two governance systems is needed to facilitate additional sustainability gains and strengthen the resilience of these governance systems. When public and private governance efforts to improve the supply, demand and governance of sustainable seafood are looked as whole, as in Article IV, it is evident that consumers/citizens are minimally engaged. Lack of consumer/citizen engagement could lead to an undervaluing of these governance systems by society. Civic engagement organizations are needed to bridge these systems and facilitate citizen/consumer/steward engagement. Public accountability mechanisms are one means to better engage the public in both governance systems, so that sustainable fisheries are realised by collective engagement of all actors.

The destruction of tropical forests is the most concerning current threat to biodiversity. Although protected areas have long been used as the primary tool for biodiversity conservation, there is an increasing need to find suitable conservation strategies for the growing area of human-modified land. This thesis addresses three themes that have been identified as the most pressing areas for research in human-modified landscapes: biodiversity conservation beyond protected areas, forest restoration, and the human–environment relationship. By studying the interactions between birds, plants, and people with isolated Ficus (Moraceae) trees in Assam, India, this thesis reports several important findings: 1) isolated Ficus trees are extraordinarily important to frugivorous bird communities that inhabit human-modified landscapes; 2) the frugivores visiting these isolated trees still sustained the majority of ecological function found in trees close to the forest edge; 3) isolated Ficus trees are also exceptionally important feeding sites for insectivorous birds in human-modified landscapes, compared to other trees; 4) Ficus trees are better restoration nuclei than other isolated trees; 5) although the sacred status of Ficus trees in Assam has a major influence on their abundance and distribution, faith-based values are insufficient in ensuring their conservation. In conclusion, this thesis finds that isolated Ficus trees are critically important micro-sites for conservation in human-modified landscapes, the loss of which may lead to avifaunal collapse and a reduction in restoration potential. However, by stressing their ecological and cultural properties, it may be possible to build a strong case for the conservation of isolated Ficus trees in Assam and elsewhere.

The marine ornamental fishery (MOF), in which fish and invertebrates are harvested for the live aquarium trade, has been growing in the last years. It is a worldwide market where species are mainly harvested directly from coral reefs in tropical countries. In the island of Puerto Rico, in the US Caribbean, resource managers have little information about the impact of this harvest on the stock populations of the species in the trade. Due to concern about the potential for over-exploitation of the fishery, a regulation was passed in 2004 limiting the permitted species to be harvested and exported. This action caused significant conflict with ornamental fishers and exporters. In order to better manage the resource, more precise ecological and market information was needed, as well as a regulation that more accurately reflected the status of the resource. This study analyzed the marine ornamental trade in Puerto Rico, in order to provide baseline information and public policy recommendations. It evaluated management needs, enforcement, fishers' perspectives and practices, market forces, ecological assessment of the species, as well as explored a management tool for the commercial (edible species) fishery involving the ornamental trade. The findings of the study are split into two broad topics, a) socio-economics and b) ecology. a) The number of dedicated ornamental fishers on the island is quite small, possibly allowing for the trade to become a seasonal alternative to commercial fishers during closed seasons for edible species. Certifications that promote correct harvesting and handling of the species were found to be of interest to fishermen and managers. b) Reef surveys of fish and invertebrates around Puerto Rico found associations of fish species with habitat characteristics including depth and rugosity. Fish and invertebrate richness and abundance did not vary markedly between different sites and regions around the island, and no evidence could be detected of ornamental fishing impacts. It is suggested that more species of fish could be added to the permitted species list, without damaging their population densities. From both ecological and market perspectives, MOF in Puerto Rico is a viable and sustainable small industry that could be expanded to benefit local people and international traders alike.

Conflict with livestock farmers is the most serious threat to the survival of the jaguar (Panthera onca) across its range of 19 countries of the Americas. In this thesis I examine the needs for mitigating human-jaguar conflict at a range-wide scale by: a) reviewing the state of knowledge on the topic, b) modelling the risk of conflict across the range, c) analysing a series of empirical field case studies, and d) proposing appropriate approaches for different levels of conflict. Findings from 43 published studies and 117 expert-described cases show that human-jaguar conflict occurs on large cattle ranches, mixed farms and smallholdings alike. Depletion of prey and poor livestock husbandry are reported as the key reasons for depredation, regardless of ecological, cultural or socio-economic context. Attitudes and tolerance towards jaguars are not necessarily linked to losses, so recent research has focussed on understanding the behaviours of farmers. With 65% of the remaining jaguar range outside of protected areas, effective strategies for coexistence with farmers are essential. By combining geospatial datasets with expert-based information, spatial patterns of human-jaguar conflicts were presented in a predictive model of conflict hotspots. Around 85% of the total jaguar range, 72% of the total Jaguar Conservation Units area and 90% of the Jaguar Corridor area overlap with livestock, and 15% of the jaguar range has risk of conflict. Regions in which jaguars are repeatedly persecuted may become ecological traps and decimate populations. An aggregate study of 17 case studies across seven countries exposed a very large variety of geographic, agronomic and socio-economic contexts. Both within and across case studies there are considerable differences in farmers’ experiences with livestock losses, concerns about depredation, levels of tolerance and attitudes, as well as social norms towards jaguars in each community. No situational factors could be used to predict how farmers perceive jaguars and deal with depredation. The only pattern consistent across case studies was that attitudes towards jaguars are most likely predicted by a factor of perceived loses combined with the social norms of the community. In most scenarios, correctly balanced strategies of improving husbandry combined with behaviour-influencing methods may be the best way forward. To this end, a conceptual model is proposed, which distinguishes three levels of conflict and explains the importance of addressing any underlying history of grievances or incompatibility of values as part of any human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategy.

This thesis presents an examination of the political ecology of human-elephant relationships in India. Its overall aim is to revitalize the ecology that has been sifted out from the discipline. The thesis draws upon, and consequently develops, more-than-human geography through a sustained engagement of nature-society relations in a non-Western context. The thesis has three broad objectives. First, to examine what more-than-human geography’s emphasis on non-dualistic forms of agency, could contribute to understandings of policy, planning and politics in conservation. Second, to examine the spatial dimensions of human-elephant relations and the social orderings of space which influence these relationships. The third objective of the thesis is to interrogate the politics of elephant conservation through a sustained engagement with diverse modes of human-elephant encounters and the socio-political assemblages with which they are entangled. The thesis first deploys and develops the concept of ‘encounter value’ to account for the different forms of human-elephant encounters and how they contribute to the political economies of biodiversity conservation. The thesis then draws from a multi-sited ethnography examining both encounters and spaces of elephant conservation. It shows how elephants help forge connections across difference and the ways their geographies are reconfigured by global networks of conservation. The third empirical section has an implicit spatial dimension. It is concerned with writing a ‘more-than-human’ geography of landscapes, examining how humans and elephants cohabit with and against the grain of political design. Finally, the thesis examines politics as an ecology of relations, showing how human-elephant relations as well as social and political outcomes may be mediated by materials. Modes of enquiry between these papers overlap. They offer critical insights into three themes that interface between political ecology and more-than-human geography. First, the thesis contributes to conceptualizing modes of human-animal encounters in a symmetrical fashion. It explicates the role of nonhuman agency as an organizing force in political economies of conservation. Second, it posits new understandings of the spaces of animals. This is developed in two ways: landscapes as dwelt, political achievements and as fluid spaces emerging through international networks of environmental governance. Third, the thesis ecologizes politics and goes beyond the humanist frameworks of political ecology. It fosters novel conversations between more-than-human geography and the postcolonial critique of political ecology in the context of human-elephant relationships. Taken together, the thesis offers up a concerted, symmetrical and novel approach to the study people’s relations with animals.

The trophy hunting of African leopards Panthera pardus pardus may generate revenue to help foster their conservation. However, leopards are sensitive to hunting and populations decline if overharvested. The practice therefore requires careful management grounded in robust estimates of population density/status. Camera-trap surveys are commonly used to establish leopard numbers, and may guide harvest quotas. However, such surveys are limited over wide spatial scales and many African governments lack resources to implement them. In this thesis I explore the potential use of a harvest composition scheme applied to puma Puma concolor in North America, to monitor leopards. The method hinges on the susceptibility of different leopard cohorts to hunting and if this varies, then predictions can be made about harvest composition. Susceptibility is likely to be governed by space use, encounter rates with bait lures (a common method used to attract leopards to hunting hides) and hunter selectivity. Thus in this thesis I explore leopard susceptibility to these factors using a protected leopard population in northern Zululand, South Africa. In my first chapter I examine using scent lures in camera-trapping. Against a backdrop of a passive survey I show adult males, females and sub-adults are captured at similar rates compared to a passive survey using lures. The use of lures does not appear to violate closure assumptions or affect spatio-temporal patterning, but their use appears limited as density estimate precision is not improved. My second chapter examines ecological (likelihood of encountering a hunter) and anthropogenic (attractiveness to hunters) susceptibility of leopards to trophy hunting. I show that adult males are the most susceptible cohort to hunting (sub-adults least susceptible). I then take the incident rates from ecological and anthropogenic models and create a theoretical harvest composition using population parameters of protected leopards. My third data chapter departs from hunting susceptibility and examines determinants of leopard trophy package price across Africa. I show that factors such as trophy quality, outfitter leopard hunting reputation and hunt success have little impact on price determination. Instead, overall outfitter reputation and the number of charismatic species in a package are positively correlated with price. These results have important consequences on several sustainable leopard hunting schemes proposed in the literature.

Tanzania’s Ruaha landscape is an international priority area for large carnivore conservation, harbouring roughly 10% of the world’s lions, and important populations of leopards and spotted hyaenas. However, these large carnivore populations are threatened by intense retaliatory killing due to human-carnivore conflict on village land around Ruaha National Park (RNP), mostly as a result of livestock predation by lions, leopards and spotted hyaenas. Moreover, a current lack of ecological data on the distribution of these carnivores hinders the development of effective strategies for conservation and targeted conflict mitigation in this landscape. This study aimed to identify the most significant ecogeographical variables (EGVs) influencing the distribution of lions, leopards and spotted hyaenas across the Ruaha landscape, and to map areas of conservation importance for these species. In addition, the study assessed the influence of EGVs on livestock predation risk by these carnivores in the village land around RNP, and generated a predictive map of predation risk. The relative importance of livestock husbandry practices and EGVs in terms of influencing predation risk within enclosures was also investigated. Proximity to rivers was the most important variable influencing the distribution of large carnivores in Ruaha, and contributed to predation risk of grazing livestock. The traditional livestock husbandry adopted in bomas appeared insufficient to alleviate the inherent risk of predation by large carnivores. The study produced the first detailed maps of lion, leopard and spotted hyaena distribution in the critically important Ruaha landscape, and identified likely livestock depredation hotspots. These results will target conflict mitigation approaches around Ruaha, by identifying particularly high-risk areas for livestock enclosures and grazing stock. Improving husbandry in these areas could help reduce livestock depredation and retaliatory carnivore killing, therefore reducing one of the most significant conservation threats in this critically important landscape.

The Proterozoic period saw some of the most fundamental revolutions in the biological and geological world. During this period, life diversified and set the stage for the radiation of multicellular life, altering the face of the planet in the process. The fossil record of this time is not yet fully understood, and a revisitation of a historically reported fossil deposit in the 1 Ga Torridon rocks of northwest Scotland shows that they host the fossils of the earliest non-marine eukaryotes, as well as a full and diverse fossil assemblage preserved in sedimentary phosphates and shales. Fine scale sedimentology of the fluvio-lacustrine rocks of the Torridon Group reveals them to be laid down in a laterally variable basin with distinctly different palaeoenvironments. The resident biota is seen to be similarly variable between lithofacies. New criteria for classifying taphonomic effects are presented, and used to characterise assemblages from different palaeoenvironments, with broader applications beyond this study. The Torridon rocks are also host to macrostructures on the surfaces and soles of beds, and these are interpreted as of likely biological origin, with their variability mapped between different lithofacies. High-resolution studies of both the preserved biota and the mineralogy of the preserving medium reveal in detail not only the fine scale structure of the fossil organisms, but also the reasons for their exceptional preservation. Phosphate is analysed in detail to explain its enigmatic occurrence in Proterozoic lakes. To place the Torridon deposits in context, both older and younger rocks were examined in comparison, from the 2 Ga Gunflint Formation of Ontario, Canada, and the Precambrian-Cambrian successions of eastern Newfoundland respectively. New finds of phosphate in these rocks help to reveal biochemical interactions and evolution on the early Earth, with implications for further understanding life on our own planet and elsewhere.

The increased demand for biofuels is expected to put additional strain on the available agricultural resources while at the same time causing environmental degradation. Hence, new energy policies need to be formulated and implemented in order to meet global energy needs while reducing the impact of biofuels farming and production. This research focuses on proving a decision support system which can aid the formulation of policies for the sustainable biofuel production. The system seeks to address policy formulation that requires reconciliation of the qualitative aspects of decision making (such as stakeholder’s viewpoints) with quantitative data, which often may be imprecise. To allow this, based on: Fuzzy logic and Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) in the form of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Using these concepts, three software functionalities, “Options vs. Fuzzy Criteria Matrix”, “Analytical Hierarchy Process” and “Fuzzy AHP” were developed. These were added within the framework of pre-existing base software, Compendium (developed by the Open University, UK). A number of case study based models have been investigated using the software. These models made use of data from the Philippines and India in order to pinpoint suitable land and crop options for these countries. The models based on AHP and Fuzzy AHP were very successful in identifying suitable crop options for India by capturing both the stakeholder viewpoints and quantitative data. The software functionalities are very effective in scenario planning and selection of policies that would be beneficial in achieving a desired future scenario. The models further revealed that the newly developed software correctly identified many of the important issues in a consistent manner.