Background
Jonathan works on identifying environmental policy and planning solutions to global, regional, and national biodiversity conservation and sustainability challenges. He tackles these problems using spatial mathematical models and decision analysis and draws on his expertise in ecology, mathematics, and economics to integrate across disciplines. Jonathan is particularly interested in research that directly informs policy to achieve environmental, social, and economic outcomes. His work has made major contributions to our understanding of the effect of landscape change and climate change on biodiversity and ecosystem services and the policy responses required, including protected area planning, incentives for private land conservation, and biodiversity offsets. He has also played a significant role in improving our understanding of the value of monitoring to inform environmental decision making. He currently holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship where he is working on the implications of globalisation, through processes such as international trade, on policy solutions for biodiversity and ecosystem services.
In SAEF, Jonathan explores how formal decision tools and conservation planning can be used to secure Antarctica’s biodiversity. He is particularly interested in understanding what types of conservation decision tools are likely to be most useful in the context of Antarctica’s unique governance structure and high levels of uncertainty.