Team

Research project leader

Jacqueline Loos

Jacqueline is both a mother and an environmental scientist, investigating human-environment relationships from an interdisciplinary and a natural-science perspective. She designed the research project “Wildlife, Values, Justice” to contribute to a better understanding of the social and ecological effects of protected areas. As complex social-ecological systems, protected areas and their surroundings represent specific arenas of interactions between conservation and development arrangements which are influenced by rules and regulations, the available knowledge and values of decision-makers and the status of biodiversity. Through the project team´s place-based explorations of the dynamics between these agents, they work towards a synergy of protected areas´ ability to contribute to achieving the sustainable development goals.

PhD student

Rhoda Kachali

Rhoda Kachali is a PhD student at the Faculty of Sustainability Science at Leuphana University. She is interested in the interface between people and nature with a view to enhancing conservation and socio-economic outcomes for communities in and around protected areas. Her PhD is on stakeholder perceptions, governance for justice and protected area effectiveness in the ecosystems of Katavi (Tanzania) and North Luangwa (Zambia).

PhD student

Richard Giliba

Richard Giliba is a PhD student at the Institute of Ecology at Leuphana University and a spatial ecologist. His research is part of the transdisciplinary project “Wildlife, Values, and Justice” and focuses on understanding wildlife and landcover responses to differences in biodiversity governance of Southern African Protected Areas.

Research associate

PASCAL FUST

Pascal Fust leads the ecological work package. As a wildlife biologist, he focuses on spatial aspects of wildlife ecology, including dynamic models of animal movements and temporal and spatial variability of natural resources. With his background in engineering, he studies the potential of new technologies in remote sensing for their applicability in providing ecological data in an efficient and accurate manner to support the management of protected areas. Within the scope of the project, he is furthermore interested in the dynamic modeling of the social-ecological system of protected areas and their surroundings.

Research associate

Simon Thomsen

Simon Thomsen works as a lecturer and research assistant at Leuphana Faculty for Sustainability. He is a trained Geographer and interested in the spatial analysis of land use change with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing. Simon is also involved into teaching in this field. In the "Wildlife, Values, Justice" project, he investigates the impact of land use change over time on the spatial distribution of medium to large mammals in Western Tanzania.

Student assistant

Annette Räther

Annette Räther is a student assistant in the “Wildlife, Values, Justice” project and a graduate student of Sustainability Science at Leuphana University. She is interested in biodiversity conservation and socio-ecological research, particularly human-nature connectedness. Within the project she mainly takes care of communication and outreach materials, such as this website.