Bridging my natural science background in wildlife and fisheries biology with my social science background in parks and conservation area management, my research focuses on four main areas: 1) stakeholder collaboration associated with large landscape conservation, 2) sustainable tourism and protected area management, 3) the relationship between human and ecosystem health, and 4) the relationship between environmental learning and pro-environmental behavior. 

My work in large landscape conservation has addressed the challenges, opportunities, and outcomes associated with stakeholder collaboration and how these groups evolve over time in their transboundary ecosystem management. I have conducted work in the Southern Appalachians and the Crown of the Continent regions in North America, have also been heavily involved in the biosphere reserve program, and will be expanding my research to international locations and large landscape conservation networks.

My work in sustainable tourism and protected area management focuses on the management of resources that balances the environmental, social/cultural, and economic needs of diverse stakeholders. I have explored unique types of tourism, such surf and medical voluntourism, as well as ecotourism, nature-based tourism, and adventure tourism. My work has taken place in the Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park, the Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail, the Flathead River System in addition to international locations such as Dominican Republic, Haiti, Peru, Namibia, Zambia, and Brazil.

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Research Interests: Large landscape conservation, stakeholder collaboration, ecotourism and sustainability, interpretation and education, sense of place and sustainable behavior, outdoor recreation benefits and impacts, linkage between health of parks and people, transboundary wildlife conflict and management

Dr. Bimo Nkhata is an applied interdisciplinary scholar and academic who has professionally worked in the environmental sector for over ten years contributing to learning and teaching, knowledge generation, policy formulation, and implementation. He has extensive experience in postgraduate teaching, supervision, and mentorship. He has published widely in the field of environmental management. His applied research emphasizes the importance of science-policy dialogues with particular attention to improving environmental decision-making processes. He has over ten years of experience leading and managing international research teams and collaborating with diverse partners in addressing sustainability issues in Africa. Over the years, he has provided demonstrated successful leadership in the development and application of sustainability solutions. In the recent past, he has been actively working on climate resilience, water security, and the water-energy-food nexus.

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Research Interests: Water Management and security, Climate Resilience, Water-energy-food nexus

Linda is the Head of Environmental Science at IIE MSA and a lecturer specialising in water management. She has been integral to establishing and co-ordinating water related education programmes at IIE MSA and lectures and supervises on the Master of Philosophy in Integrated Water Management. She is currently developing and coordinating the design of a new undergraduate qualification in Science, a BSc in Environmental Science.   

She holds a Master’s degree in Education, specialising in Environmental Education, and is currently undertaking her Doctorate in Education at Rhodes University.  She has worked on a number of externally funded research grants including a 5-year project on water security funded by the Lloyds Register Foundation, a 3 year USAID research grant and two Water Research Commission grants.  

She is passionate about learning, social networks and communities of practice all within a natural resource management context and has a number of publications in these fields.

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Research Interests: Transdisciplinary research, Social ecological systems, Citizen science, sustainability and SDG’s

Dr. Aby Sène-Harper is a faculty of Parks and Conservation Area Management. She is a trained interdisciplinary environmental social researcher whose work advances socially and ecologically just approaches to managing public lands, natural and cultural resources in the US and in Africa. Her research lies at the intersections of parks and protected area governance, livelihoods, nature-based tourism, and Race and nature. In the US her work interrogates how history and culture mediate African American relationships with nature, and cultural landscapes. In Africa, her work centers on the colonial structures of power in conservation, and integrative conservation approaches such as livelihood-centered projects, ecotourism and community-based conservation. For over a decade, Dr. Sène-Harper has worked closely with government agencies in the US and Africa to inform and design integrated management plans for large scale conservation areas of international importance for biodiversity and socio-economic development (i.e., RAMSAR designated Wetlands; World Heritage Sites, National Parks). She has published multiple academic articles and technical reports on several topics including, community-based natural resource management, sustainable livelihoods, protected area management, ecotourism and relevancy, diversity and inclusion in US. Public lands.

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Research Interests: Parks and conservation area management, community-based natural resource management, Race and nature, critical qualitative inquiry, critical leisure research, US, West Africa

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Selma Lendelvo is an associate research professor in life sciences, and currently the Director for the Centre for Grants Management and Resource Mobilization at the University of Namibia (UNAM) with a research and project management experience spanning over 20 years. Her work and publications have mainly been on community-based natural resources management and rural development including cross-cutting aspects such as gender and climate change. Selma also works closely with the government and other practitioners on the ground to strengthen natural resources management, conservation and community development in Namibia and beyond. She serves on the Namibia National Committee for the Rio Conventions, the Namibian Nature Conservation Board and the Namibia Association for CBNRM Support organisations (NACSO). Her collaborations with regional and international partners have been instrumental in shaping and advancing her research and professional career.

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Research interests:

Prof Joseph E. Mbaiwa is the Director of the Okavango Research Institute (ORI), University of Botswana. His credentials also include: Professor of Tourism studies (2013 to present), Associate Professor of Tourism Studies (2010-13), Senior Research Scholar (2005-2010), Research Scholar (2000-2005). He has over 20 years’ experience in tourism and natural resource management research and consultancy experience in Botswana. He is widely published in areas of tourism development, rural livelihoods and biodiversity conservation issues with focus on the Okavango Delta Botswana.He has published over 150 publications including: 4 books, 63 journal articles, 42 book chapters, 22 referred conference proceedings, 11 technical reports, 32 consultancy reports and presented over 92 papers in international and national conferences. Prof Mbaiwa has supervised and graduated 15  Masters and PhD students. He was a taskforce member that prepared a proposal dossier that resulted in the listing of the Okavango Delta as the 1000th World Heritage Site. He is also a Board Member of the Botswana Tourism Organisation.

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Research Interests: tourism development, rural livelihoods, community-based natural resource management, environmental management, natural resource use and biodiversity conservation