Utility

We are evaluating the direct and indirect benefits (ecosystem goods and services) that humans derive from ecological and evolutionary novelty.

This programme considers the socioeconomic, political, geographical, historical and cultural circumstances under which individuals and groups benefit from, or are harmed by, increases in biodiversity. It thereby aspires to identify new development and policy opportunities.

Areas of interest

• Valuable immigrants and unwanted interlopers, quantifying the benefits and costs that different groups of humans derive from ‘novel biodiversity’, and evaluating whether new policies might increase future benefits.

• Controlling nature, assessing the efficacy and unintended consequences of deliberate attempts to protect nature and, conversely, remove unwanted species and ecosystems.

• Adjusting nature to our own ends, in which we evaluate how utilitarian ecosystem modification increases as well as decreases biological diversity, aiming to identify means by which future diversity could be increased.