@georgeholmes
Professor of Conservation and Society @envleeds.bsky.social. Known to students as Dr. Evil. Biodiversity conservation. Human geography. Political ecology. Protected areas. Social impacts of conservation. Human-wildlife coexistence. Rewilding. Sarcasm.
1/ Calling all ECRs - we have 4x3 year post docs on Multispecies Mutualisms working with us at Sheffield.
Don't want to read through all the stuff to work out if its right for you? Here is a short video explainer 🎥
digitalmedia.sheffield.ac.uk/media/Multis...
Our research group looks at a broad range of topics, is fairly diverse in terms of views, approaches and demographic characteristics. But we will continue to strictly enforce our "no Nazis" rule.
Was kinda cool to go back to my old building @globaldevinst.bsky.social and see how much and how little has changed. Not least the fact that many of my old PhD colleagues are now staff there, yet haven't aged a day. The fountain of youth must be located in the coffee area on the first floor....
Congratulations to Dr @natalie-york.bsky.social for passing her PhD with an awesome viva. Really interesting work on politics of biocultural conservation in northern Kenya. Check out her paper in @conbiology.bsky.social
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
We are recruiting a new head of school! This is an exciting opportunity to join us at University of Leeds in @earthandenvleeds.bsky.social - please check out the advert and get in touch if you are interested! jobs.leeds.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...
Another classic meeting of the England Species Reintroduction Taskforce, part of which involved looking for Natterjack Toads in some surprisingly sunny and warm Surrey wetlands.
Do you work for a conservation organisation? Take part in this global survey of conservation labour - on who does what in conservation, where, and how: www.cmi.no/projects/292...
Significant exponential growth of POLLEN since the early days in the 2000s. If we carry on this trajectory, POLLEN 2040 will have over 1 million parallel sessions. Who says that infinite exponential growth isn’t sustainable?
The geography department is as wonderful as ever - great to see some of my old lecturers still there, and even better to see people that I first met as students now staff members themselves. I am now accepting of my status as a middle-aged academic.
What hasn't are things than simultaneously help and hinder translocations - land ownership/tenure is a slow changing business, despite some legal and political changes. The 'Balmoralised', Edwin Landseer vision of Scotland's landscape is constantly reinforced.
Scotland now has significant and expanding beaver populations, when in 2000 it had none. Reintroductions are a 'thing', as are other words starting with 're', part of mainstream conservation and popular discourse. Many reintroductions have happened, mostly of inverts, plants, small things.
Rather lovely to go back to @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social geography department, a quarter century after it all started there for me, to talk about the future of species reintroduction in Scotland. Since my student days in, ahem, 2000-5, much has changed for reintroduction in Scotland, and much hasn't.
This is the latest salvo in what I'm calling The Great British Herpetological Hoo-Hah - disagreements on what amphibians and reptiles should be 're'-introduced to Britain, where, and how. Lots of fascinating details. Worthy of a PhD study or a 4-part BBC1 drama
www.arc-trust.org/lost-frogs-r...
CFP 📢 Join us for a panel on conservation histories for the European Congress of Conservation Biology in Leiden @eccb26leiden.bsky.social If you're interested, email @georgeholmes.bsky.social or me with an abstract by Feb 9.
#envhist #histsci #animalhist
#conservationhumanities
Want to join our panel @eccb26leiden.bsky.social on "Conservation Histories and Humanities: Understanding the Present, Unearthing the Past"? We are looking for presentations exploring the histories of conservation. Email me (g.holmes@leeds.ac.uk) with an abstract by 9th Feb.
A PhD opportunity involving several of my favourite things - Scotland, tricky debates about land management and ideas of landscape, and Phil Stephens. Deadline is end of month.
the particularly cool thing about this study is that it takes an idea from humanities based on archival research - the history of ecology, the invention of 'native' species concepts, their place in conservation science - and empirically maps this in contemporary society using social science methods
super interesting paper in @conbiology.bsky.social on how different groups feel about 'native' versus non-native species decline in Canada, particularly how White people put a much greater emphasis on nativeness in their response.
conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
plus a dose of techno optimism. I can recommend Theo Stanley’s excellent PhD research on Scottish estates, carbon, capitalism and technology.
our letter in @theguardian.com on the rise of 'beaver bombing' and other illicit and unregulated species reintroductions in Britain and elsewhere.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
It's also not a 'pristine' wilderness, given it has indigenous petroglyphs. It is unclear whether it has any additional legal status as a protected landscape (v. unlikely). But it is a stunning place, like a wetter, colder Yosemite, where Asi Conserva Chile took me foraging for Nalka.
The relationship between Chilean conservationists and the Tompkins' organisations are much more complex than the foreign media make out. The additionality of the Cochamó purchase is debatable - the place is remote, seismically active, so not really under much threat in the most part.
Interesting to see another HUGE purchase of land for a privately protected area in Patagonia. I saw the early stages of this campaign, led by local climbers etc, when doing fieldwork there in 2011. It is misleading to say that it was 'inspired' by gringos. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...
How can we make conservation fieldwork more inclusive and just?
New document by the SCB Europe's DEIJ Committee summarizes key barriers to participation and practical, evidence-based actions and ways forward. See a couple of examples below.
🔗 www.scbeurope.org/en/deij-comm...
Another day, another illicit species release: I suspect there are a few people who know exactly where this one came from (Bavaria, originally, I bet - it seems all Europe's illicit beavers can be traced back there), and quite a few more who have strong suspicions. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Graphical abstract on a paper on designing user-centred technologies to address the illegal wildlife trade. The image depicts four visual parts of the study, 1. the geographic location where the research was conducted, in Indonesia, 2. Some of the methods, including a needs assessment where members of conservation law enforcement ranked the effectiveness of features that would assist them in their jobs together with a correct species identification, such as the IUCN or protection status, the 3. part shows a prototype of an app on a mobile phone screen, which is the use case we are considering. It shows a picture of a bird taken in a wildlife marketplace followed by the percentage accuracy that the artificial intelligence model has assigned the classification of the image. The 4. section discusses some implications of the study, i.e. that technology results wouldn't be admissible in court (i.e. this species was correctly identified by a tool and not a person) and that bird trade is socially acceptable, which compromises the efficacy of enforcement.
One of my PhD chapters: 'Designing user-centered technologies to address the illegal wildlife trade' is OUT NOW in the @society4conbio.bsky.social journal Conservation Science and Practice! Please check out the graphical abstract and give it a read: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Fieldwork can be a unique opportunity, but it can also be a very significant challenge to well-being. My colleagues have developed this interactive reflection tool to help manage well-being whilst on fieldwork, preparing to fieldwork, and when you get back
inclusivefieldwork.leeds.ac.uk/wellbeing/
Photo shows the yellow myxcomycete, Fuligo septica, on deadwood
Are you an ecologist? Do you collect biodiversity data for your role in a charity, research, a government body, or a specialist organisation?
Read on for a thread that might interest you… 🧵 [1/6]
#biodiversity #forests #darkextinction #ecology #research
go to POLLEN, load up on radical ideas around coexistence. Then go to ECCB and Pathways, release the ideas and cause absolute havoc?
They go to the same place as pens, tupperware lids, and exactly one sock from each pair.