Staff

Bio: David Pannell is a Professor in the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. He established the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy at the start of his ARC Federation Fellowship in 2008. He has published 8 books, 250 journal articles and book chapters, and his research has been recognised with awards from the USA, Australia, Canada and the UK. He collaborates with a wide variety of environmental and natural resource management organisations.

Capacity/skills: decision science, bioeconomic modelling, policy review and development, farmer adoption of new practices, risk management, benefit: cost analysis; project prioritisation; mathematical programming.

Areas of application: land, farming systems, water, agriculture, natural resources, biodiversity, threatened species, fire, salinity, weed management and more.

Current and recent grants: NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub, ARC Discovery, and several independent research contracts.

Websites: Personal Website; Blog, Rural Practice Change, Resources for Agri-Envrironmental Schemes

Dr Abbie Rogers

Co-Director, Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Senior Research Fellow, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment &UWA Oceans Institute.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5506

Email: abbie.rogers@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Abbie Rogers is Co-Director of UWA’s Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy and Associate Professor in the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. Her research work is highly applied and end-user driven. She has a key interest in promoting systematic integration of social and environmental values in evidence-based decision making, and works extensively in economic analyses of marine, coastal and other natural environments.

Abbie has published 30 peer-reviewed papers, 1 book chapter, and over 50 research reports, conference papers and posters. She has helped to secure over $6 million in grants. Her Honours research was awarded the UK Agricultural Economics Society Prize Essay for best article by an early-career researcher, published in the Journal of Agricultural Economics, and she was UWA School of Agriculture & Environment Rising Star in 2018 and Emerging Leader in 2022.

Abbie served as the Deputy Director of the UWA Oceans Institute in 2021 prior to being awarded the WA Premier’s Early to Mid-Career Fellowship in 2022, through which she is working closely with WA State Government to deliver a program of research focussed on improving coastal hazard management.

Capacity/skills: non-market valuation, discrete choice experiments, benefit transfer, benefit-cost analysis, project prioritisation, questionnaire/survey design, focus group facilitation, semi-structured interview techniques, stakeholder engagement.

Areas of application: marine conservation and habitat restoration, planning and management of coastal resources and development, natural hazard adaptation, consumer demand for water-sensitive urban developments, expert and public preferences for environmental and social outcomes, environmental policy and management, marine and coastal offset policies.

Current and recent grants: Premier’s Early to Mid-Career Fellowship, WAMSI-WESTPORT Marine Science Program, Oceans Institute Better Oceans Program, ARC Discovery project, WA Department of Planning Lands and Heritage, NESP Marine and Coastal Hub.

Websites: Program 2 | Resilient WAys

Ms Tammie Harold

Centre Manager, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy & Centre for Agricultural Economics and Development.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5507

Email: tamara.harold@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Tammie Harold is responsible for the administration and management of the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy. She has extensive project management experience across a range of portfolios including research, capacity building, and senior executive and functional support. This experience includes over 13 years in the research and international consulting sectors.

Capacity/skills: project management, project and event coordination, multi-stakeholder engagement management, research support and adoption, high level administration, research assistance, communication and marketing initiatives.

Areas of application: policy projects, international development projects, applied economic projects

Current and recent grants: MLA’s BeefLinks, APL’s Black Solider Fly, ACIAR’s Farmer Behaviours Insights Project, CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, CEED, NESPs

Availability for more work: January, 2025

A/Prof Michael Burton

Associate Professor, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment.

Phone: +61 8 6488 2531

Email: michael.burton@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Michael Burton is an Associate Professor in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. His research is focused on understanding people’s behaviour, and the values that underpin those behaviours. He has worked extensively in the areas of consumer demand, particularly for food, and farmers adoption decisions. A major area of interest is in the valuation of non-market environmental goods, and the use of survey and revealed preference techniques to do that. He has published over 100 per-reviewed papers, and has a Scopus H score of 24. He has supervise over 20 PhD students to completion.

Capacity/skills: Choice modelling/choice experiments, non-market valuation, policy evaluation, questionnaire design, survey analysis

Areas of application: agricultural technology adoption, biodiversity, conservation farmer behaviour, marine protection, natural resources management, economics of food related health issues.

Current and recent grants:
WAMSI-WESTPORT research program, WA Department of Planning Lands and Heritage, NESP Marine and Coastal Hub.

Availability for more work: July, 2025

A/Prof Marit Kragt

Associate Professor, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment.

Phone: +61 8 6488 4653

Email: marit.kragt@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Marit Kragt is an Associate Professor in Agricultural and Resource Economics, Director of the Centre for Agricultural Economics and Development, and Pro Vice Chancellor (Diversity & Inclusion). Her research focuses on integrating biophysical science and economics to help improve natural resource management. She has an interest in economic valuation and cost-benefit analysis to support more efficient management decisions. She has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers, and has won awards for her research in Australia, the USA, and the UK. In 2016, she was awarded an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award. She has supervised 15 Postgraduate students to completion, and has attracted over $5 million in research funding.

Capacity/skills: interdisciplinary research, bio-economic modelling, choice modelling/choice experiments, cost-benefit analysis, decision support, econometrics, focus group facilitation, non-market valuation, policy evaluation, questionnaire design, survey analysis

Areas of application: agricultural systems, biodiversity, conservation, climate change, farmer behaviour, marine protection, mine rehabilitation, natural resources management, water quality

Current and recent grants: ARC ITTC in Behavioural Insights for Technology Adoption (BITA), GRDC’s RiskWi$e, CRC Zero Net Emissions.

A/Prof Fay Rola-Rubzen

Associate Professor, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5508

Email: fay.rola-rubzen@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Fay Rola-Rubzen is an Associate Professor in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, and a Deputy Director of the Centre for Agricultural Economics and Development. She has led and managed several research and development projects to successful completion, with multi-disciplinary teams both in Australia and internationally. She has extensive research experience in developing countries in Asia and Africa and has been a Consultant to various organisations including UN-FAO, UN-ESCAP, IRRI, ADB and ACIAR.

Capacity/skills: socio-economic analysis, stakeholder needs analysis, poverty and social analysis, gender analysis, supply chain and value chain analysis, marketing research, benefit-cost analysis, cost-efficiency analysis, adoption of sustainable agriculture practices, monitoring and evaluation and project and program evaluation.

Areas of application: poverty and food security, farming systems analysis; sustainable and resilient farming systems, agribusiness marketing and supply chains, rural development, gender mainstreaming, decision analysis under risk and uncertainty, climate change

Current grant: Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research, Grains Research & Development Corporation’s RiskWi$e.

Availability for more work: January, 2028

Dr Ram Pandit

Senior Lecturer, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment.

Research Director for Biodiversity Economics and Finance, Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI)

Phone: +61 8 6488 1353

Email: ram.pandit@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Ram Pandit is a Senior Lecturer in Environmental and Resource Economics at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. He has research interest in conservation and development issues. His research focuses on causes and consequences of environmental and resource management policies to help improve environmental and natural resource management. His current works include economics of threatened species conservation, socio-economic impacts of protected area policies, and valuation of urban green space. Ram is also an Adjunct Faculty of the Global Center for Food, Land and Water Resources, Hokkaido University, Japan and an IPBES expert (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). He has published more than 55 peer-reviewed papers. He has supervised 14 Postgraduate students (MSc and PhD) to completion, and has attracted over $2 million in research funding.

Capacity/skills: Spatial econometrics, econometrics, hedonic modelling, non-market valuation, impact evaluation, application of GIS, questionnaire design, survey analysis

Areas of application: Biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, threatened species valuation, REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), forest economics and policy, community and urban forestry, land degradation, natural resources management

Current and recent grants: NESP TSR Quantifying benefits and costs of threatened-species management in rural and regional economies, Department of Environment and Energy, Australian Government; Impact Evaluation of Protected Area Management Policy on Household Welfare in Nepal, KAKENHI – Grants in Aid Program of the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS), Government of Japan.

Availability for more work: July, 2024

Prof Steven Schilizzi

Professor, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment.

Phone: +61 8 6488 2105

Email: steven.schilizzi@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Steve is an Associate Professor in Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Western Australia School of Agriculture and Environment. Steve’s research currently focuses on decision-making challenges in policy design and implementation (particularly market-based instruments) in relation to natural resource and environmental management, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries, pollution, waste and recycling. Steve has published more than 60 peer-reviewed papers, 20 book chapters and authored or edited 4 books. He has won awards for his research in Australia, Germany and Pakistan. He has supervised about 30 postgraduate students to completion, 20 of which were PhDs, with five more current.

Capacity/skills: interdisciplinary research, bio-economic modelling, cost-benefit analysis, decision support, policy evaluation, questionnaire design, survey analysis, experimental and behavioural economics, energy systems, risk and uncertainty analysis, market-based policy instruments, auctions or competitive tenders, analysing social-economic trade-offs (e.g. equity considerations or the role of social norms)

Areas of application: agricultural systems, biodiversity, endangered species, nature conservation, climate change, farmer behaviour, industry behaviour, marine protection, natural resources management, air, water and land pollution, business challenges in managing the environment

Current and recent grants: ARC-Discovery (2022-25) on ‘Redesigning Landcare policy to better coordinate land conservation across landholders’, including collaborations in Germany, UK, USA and Canada.

Availability for more work: Any time, as an individual or team consultant.

Dr Fiona Dempster

Research Fellow, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 (0) 458 555 803

Email: fiona.dempster@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Fiona Dempster is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Environmental Economics in the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, and a Deputy Director of the Centre for Agricultural Economics and Development. She is passionate about generating knowledge to enable policy makers, farmers and community to make informed decisions. She enjoys bringing people and ideas together to solve complex issues, using a combination of biophysical, management and economic data. Fiona’s research is currently focused on the economics of using insects to reduce inputs in farming systems. Fiona also has expertise in prioritisation metrics and non-market valuation for bushfire mitigation, biodiversity restoration and water. Fiona stays connected to real, on-ground problems by working remotely from Mingenew in the northern Wheatbelt of Western Australia.

Capacity/skills: policy analysis, critical review, non-market valuation, benefit: cost analysis. interdisciplinary research, decision support

Areas of application: biodiversity restoration, farming systems, water supply, bushfire mitigation, natural hazard mitigation, environmental management

Current and recent grants: Meat & Livestock, Grains Research & Development’s RiskWi$e.

Availability for more work: January, 2025.

Dr Natasha Pauli

Senior Lecturer, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment.

Phone: +61 8 6488 3546

Email: natasha.pauli@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Natasha Pauli is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at the University of Western Australia and Director. Her research uses an interdisciplinary approach linking the social, ecological and spatial sciences to better understand human-environment interactions. She is interested in understanding how detailed local knowledge and perceptions influence environmental management and planning. Natasha has undertaken fieldwork in urban and rural Australia, as well as rural areas of Honduras, Colombia, Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Fiji and Tonga. She has supervised seven PhD students to completion, as well as 25 Honours and Masters dissertation students. She has been involved in a broad range of research projects with funding agencies across national and state government, industry, CRC, and non-government organisations.

Capacity/skills: Interdisciplinary and participatory research. Design of structured questionnaires, semi-directed interview protocols, participatory mapping activities, and qualitative approaches to understanding natural resource use and local knowledge. Biodiversity and soil quality surveys. Stakeholder and social network analysis. Social-ecological systems analysis.

Areas of application: biodiversity, environmental conservation, climate change, local and traditional knowledge, water quality, urban ecology and biodiversity, spatial analysis and planning, agricultural systems, livelihoods, soil health, coastal and marine management and conservation, natural hazards.

Current grants: WAMSI-Westport research program, WA Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD), Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Healthy Environments and Lives (HEAL) National Network (NHMRC Special Initiative in Human Health and Environmental Change), Worldwide Universities Network (WUN).

Availability for more work: July, 2024.

Dr Carmen Elrick-Barr

Research Fellow, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5505

Email: carmen.elrick-barr@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Dr Elrick-Barr is a human geographer specialising in coastal management, global environmental change, vulnerability, and resilience. Her applied research explores individual and societal values and integration into management; and how individuals and societies understand and respond to change and their capacities to adapt and transform.

Carmen’s focus is on translational research and has included diverse topics from the social value of offshore marine infrastructure, to integrating climate change into policy and practice, and reducing vulnerability in Australian coastal communities through innovative governance. Carmen has cumulatively managed projects valued at over $1.4 million and is on the editorial board of Ocean and Coastal Management and Vice-Chair of the Australian Coastal Society.

Capacity/skills: Interdisciplinary research, Interview protocol, Survey design, Qualitative and Quantitative data analysis, Project management, Program design, monitoring and evaluation.

Areas of application: Coastal and marine management, policy development and evaluation, social values and perceptions, global environmental change, adaptive capacity, resilience and more.

Current grants: DECRA, Department of Water and Environmental Regulation, ARC Future Fellowship Project, Peron Naturaliste Partnership and FRDC grant.

Availability for more work: December, 2027.

Dr Matthew Navarro

Research Fellow, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy, UWA School of Biological Sciences & UWA Oceans Institute.

Phone: +61 8 6488 4364

Email: matthew.navarro@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Matt Navarro is a multi-disciplinary marine scientist interested in integrating ecological, economic, and social ways of thinking to help align marine management with the aspirations of communities and society. Matt’s focus is on applied research and has included a diverse range of topics including no-take marine reserves, shark depredation, the objectives of recreational fishing management and incorporation of local ecological knowledge into management. Matt has recently completed a national social and economic benchmark of the Australian Marine Parks for the National Environmental Sciences Program, Marine Biodiversity Hub.

Capacity/skills: Non-market valuation, discrete choice experiments, travel cost models, questionnaire/survey design, big-data, spatial data, sampling design, structured interview techniques, stakeholder engagement, bio-economic modelling

Areas of application: Marine conservation, no-take marine reserves, recreational fisheries management, shark depredation, local ecological knowledge

Current grants: WAMSI-WESTPORT research program, NESP Marine Biodiversity Hub, Our Marine Parks.

Availability for more work: July, 2024

Dr Alaya Spencer-Cotton

Research Fellow, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy & UWA Oceans Institute.

Phone: +61 420 603 664

Email: alaya.spencer-cotton@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Alaya Spencer-Cotton is an environmental economist currently working as Research Fellow in a collaboration between CEEP and UWA Oceans Institute. Alaya’s research is focused on understanding how people value their world around them by looking at their behaviours and the choices they make. Inspired by the diverse landscapes of Western Australia, she is interested in understanding how people’s values and preferences for natural resources can be adequately included in land-use policy and planning.

Alaya’s research was awarded the UK Agricultural Economics Society Prize Essay for best article by an early-career researcher in 2018 and, after completing her PhD research in 2022, she has secured funding for post-doctoral research on the social licence to operate offshore renewable wind farms in Australia.

Capacity/skills: Non-market valuation, contingent valuation and discrete choice experiments, travel cost method, questionnaire/survey design and administration, focus group facilitation

Areas of application: Biodiversity, natural resources management, rangeland land-use policy, marine park planning, planning and management of coastal resources and development, offshore renewable wind energy

Current grants: UWA Oceans Institute Better Oceans Programme, WAMSI-WESTPORT research program, WA Department of Planning Lands and Heritage

Availability for more work: March, 2024

Dr Chi Nguyen

Research Fellow, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5505

Email: chi.nguyen@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Dr. Chi Nguyen is an environmental and experimental economist. Her research focuses on the interactions between human behaviour and the environment, especially analysing coordination and cooperation within/between groups and social norms on human decision making. Chi is interested in applying behavioural economics theories and techniques to develop innovative incentive mechanisms in order to promote conservation of natural resources and biodiversity. Chi has won awards for her research in Japan, Australia, Germany, and Vietnam. She was awarded the UWA Ocean Institute’s 2017 Robson & Robertson Award for Best Research and the 2020 AARES Best PhD Prize for Australia and New Zealand in agricultural & resource economics.

Capacity/skills: Statistical and data analysis with state-of-the-art techniques, experimental design and experimetrics (choice experiments, lab experiments, and field experiments), productivity and efficiency analysis, social survey methods, expert knowledge of agricultural production and fisheries, natural resource management and policy analysis

Areas of application: Development economics, behavioural and experimental economics, fisheries management, compliance with environmental regulations, biodiversity conservation, natural and resource management, payments for ecosystem services, institutional analysis of agricultural and environmental policy, environmental auctions

Current grants: ARC-Discovery grant, EU-funded project.

Availability for more work: January, 2025.

Dr Curtis Rollins

Research Fellow, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5505

Email: curtis.rollins@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Curtis Rollins is an applied economist whose research focuses on understanding how people make choices. Curtis is particularly interested in integrating approaches from other social sciences, such as psychology and sociology, to improve economic models of human behaviour. He has applied these research methods to a range of topics, including renewable energy transitions, farmers’ adoption of environmentally beneficial practices, natural hazards, biodiversity, and forest policy.

Prior to completing his PhD at UWA, Curtis worked in market research and public engagement for the public service in Canada.

Capacity/skills: Survey and questionnaire research, public perceptions, stated preferences, non-market valuation, choice modelling, structural equation modelling

Areas of application: Renewable energy transition, environmental policy, agri-environmental policy, natural hazards, biodiversity

Current grants: WA Department of Planning Lands and Heritage, ARC ITTC for Transformation of Australia’s Biosolids.

Availability for more work: August, 2025.

Dr Claire Doll

Research Fellow, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5505

Email: claire.doll@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Claire Doll is an environmental economist who specialises in non-market valuation and benefit-cost analysis. She has expertise conducting research directly with stakeholders and applying economic tools to help provide solutions to unique challenges faced by environmental managers and policy makers.

Claire’s research has focused on a range of topics, including urban biodiversity, water scarcity, and renewable energy systems, and has involved working in interdisciplinary teams with researchers from Australia, Canada, and Germany. Claire is also passionate about science communication, and helps teach units on this topic at UWA.

Capacity/skills: Benefit: cost analysis, non-market valuation, survey/questionnaire research and design

Areas of application: Urban water scarcity, urban biodiversity, biofuels, coastal values and natural hazards

Current grants: WAMSI-WESTPORT research program, WA Department of Planning Lands and Heritage, NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub.

Availability for more work: August, 2024.

Websites: PhD website

Ms Cheryl Day

Research Officer, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 8 6488 2536

Email: cheryl.day@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Cheryl Day was awarded many scholarships and prizes for her academic achievements during her studies and completed a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics with first class Honours at UWA. Since, she has worked on projects for the Plant Biosecurity CRC and CRC for Honey Bee Products.

Prior to study and a career in research Cheryl worked in the banking and finance industry for over 16 years. She brings a diverse skill set and a background of experience in agriculture and natural environments in both Queensland and Western Australia. She enjoys understanding and assessing the dynamics of biological and economic production systems.

Capacity/skills: Bioeconomic model development, questionnaire/survey design and result analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and general research assistance.

Areas of application: Plant biosecurity, agricultural production and environmental systems, natural resource management, ecosystem services and more.

Current grants: ARC Discovery grant, WA Department of Planning Lands and Heritage, NESP Resilient Landscapes Hub.

Availability for more work: January, 2025.

Mr Chuanji Yong

Senior Research Officer, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 (0)405 083 581

Email: cj.yong@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Chuanji Yong has diverse experience across the financial and ecological environment sectors. He is a Biologist, having completed his MRes with two data-intensive projects to predict health conditions of Weddell seals in Antarctica and to evaluate genomic adaptation of damselflies in Sweden. He is also a qualified Actuary and has worked as a consultant at PwC and CBA.

Chuanji wants to push for data-driven decision making in environmental conservation, with a particular focus on the value of incorporating better quality information in decision-making. He has started his PhD looking at threat management costs across Australia.

Chuanji is currently working closely with Norfolk Island stakeholders and research groups to improve the conservation outcomes on the island.

Capacity/skills: Modelling, analytics, questionnaire/survey design and result analysis, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and research assistance

Areas of application: Decision making, threatened species, island ecosystems

Current grants: NESP Resilient Landscape Hub.

Availability for more work: May, 2024.

Ms Rebecca Raynal

Graduate Research Assistant, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 (0)421 767 066

Email: rebecca.raynal@uwa.edu.au

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Bio: Rebecca Raynal has just finished her PhD at UNSW Sydney, which investigated how temperature impacts phenotype across a diverse range of ectotherms. Rebecca concentrated on understanding how temperature impacts ectotherm reproduction, development and early life traits. This included using experimental methods with model species such as; fish, reptiles and snails. Additionally, Rebecca used meta-analytical and comparative analysis methods to understand how broad climate patterns impact development in ectotherms.

Rebecca is currently working in the CEEP on an ecological modelling project for Norfolk Island.

Capacity/skills: Experimental methods, field work, Frequentist and Bayesian statistics, meta-analysis, systematic review

Areas of application: Environmental systems, ecosystem services, conservation, climate change

Current grants: NESP Resilient Landscape Hub.

Availability for more work: Mid-August, 2024.

Mr Ben Walker

Graduate Research Assistant, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: not available

Email: ben.walker@uwa.edu.au

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Bio: Ben Walker is an evolutionary ecologist with an interest in broadscale macroecological approaches, statistical modelling, and applied outcomes of ecological and environmental management. Ben has worked on diverse systems including dingo behaviour and scent chemical composition, the evolution of vertebrate sound propagation, and macroecological comparisons of how loud vertebrates can get. He aims to bring together eco-evolutionary processes and management outcomes, so that policy and management work with the ecologies of species rather than against them.

Ben has recently submitted his PhD at the University of New South Wales, as part of the Centre for Ecosystem Science and the Evolution and Ecology Research Centre. He currently works as an ecological modeller as part of a CEEP project focused on Norfolk Island.

Capacity/skills: Statistical modelling, ecology, evolution, animal communication, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), fieldwork, experimental design, R and R-studio

Areas of application: Interdisciplinary research, natural resources, biodiversity, threatened species, environmental management.

Current grants: NESP Resilient Landscape Hub.

Availability for more work: Mid-August, 2024.

Dr Johanna Zimmerhackel

Associate Member, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment

Phone: +61 8 6488 2531

Email: johanna.zimmerhackel@uwa.edu.au

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Bio: Johanna Zimmerhackel is an adjunct in the Centre of Environmental Economics and Policy (CEEP) at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. She holds a PhD in Environmental Economics and a Master of Science in Marine Ecosystems and Fisheries Science. Johanna is interested in the integration of economics and marine conservation. Her PhD project focused on the socio-economic value of shark-diving tourism and its contribution to shark conservation in the Indian Ocean. Currently, Johanna works on the economic value of marine infrastructure in Western Australia and the global external costs of marine plastic pollution.

Capacity/skills: interdisciplinary research, non-market valuation, fisheries science, questionnaire design, survey analysis, focus group facilitation, ecological monitoring

Areas of application: marine ecosystems, biodiversity, conservation, fisheries, sustainable tourism, plastic pollution, marine infrastructure.

Current grants: Ad hoc basis

Availability for more work: October, 2024.

Dr Julian Clifton

Adjunct, UWA School of Social Sciences & Oceans Institute

Associate Professor

Phone: +44 (0) 7340 212148

Email: julian.clifton@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Dr Julian Clifton is Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia where he worked for 15 years in the Department of Geography. His current research focuses on the social and economic benefits to indigenous peoples and local communities arising from carbon and biodiversity credit schemes and developing nature-based solutions to benefit biodiversity and stakeholder communities in the marine environment.

Julian has been at the forefront of initiatives to incorporate stakeholder values in marine planning, encompassing research in Australia, south-east Asia, the Western Indian Ocean and Latin America. He has published over 60 academic papers, numerous technical reports and book chapters and has delivered consultancy projects totalling over $2.1M. Julian has supervised 12 PhD students to completion alongside many Masters students and has won awards for his teaching in Australia.

Capacity/skills: Socio-economic analysis, stakeholder needs and values analysis, inter-disciplinary evaluation of ecosystem services, individual and group structured and semi-structured interviews, surveys, interviews, focus group work and questionnaires, policy review and analysis.

Areas of application: Nature-based solutions in marine and terrestrial environments, evaluating carbon and biodiversity credit schemes, Indigenous, local and traditional participation in policy-making, marine conservation policy and marine protected areas, stakeholder contributions to marine planning, climate change policy

Current grants: WAMSI-Westport research program, FRDC offshore oil and gas decommissioning work, National Decommissioning Research Initiative, Expanding Excellence in England (E3)

Availability for more work: June, 2023

Dr Sayed Iftekhar

Adjunct, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment

Senior Lecturer, Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics,

Griffith University.

Phone: +61 7 (07) 373 59775

Email: m.iftekhar@griffith.edu.au

Bio: Md Sayed Iftekhar is an environmental and resource economist at Griffith University, and an ARC DECRA Fellow. Prior to this, Sayed was Deputy Director at Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy at UWA School of Agriculture and Environment for nearly 8 years.

He is interested in the interactions between human and nature, including examining environmental issues such as sustainable forest management, ecosystem services, protected areas and environmental conservation from biological and resource management viewpoints. He has also broadened his interests to combinatorial conservation auctions, fisheries quota allocation, networks and group formation, market design for environmental water buyback and intergenerational equity and risk aversion.

A/Prof Katrina Davis

Adjunct, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment

Associate Professor of Conservation Biology, Marine Conservation Ecology & Management (MCEM) group, Department of Zoology, Oxford University.

Phone: +44 (0) 1865 (2) 71234

Email: katrina.davis@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Dr Katrina Davis is an Associate Professor at Oxford University and adjunct at UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. She is an outstanding researcher who has built a significant network of collaborations around the world and produced important publications in environmental economics and environmental management, including papers in a range of top-quality international journals. Her research investigates optimal use of natural resources to maximise the productivity of human and ecological systems.

Katrina has led several large, collaborative projects investigating how to manage conflict between sea lions and fishers in Chile and Peru, and how to incorporate complexity in the valuation of marine environment, which have provided important advancements in the field.

She is currently leading the Marine Conservation Ecology & Management (MCEM) group at Oxford University. The research combines bio-economic and demographic modelling, non-market valuation and optimisation approaches. Current projects include resolution of marine human-wildlife conflict, assessing marine use and non-use values, spatial marine management, and theoretical work exploring how to treat choice-consistency in discrete choice experiment analysis.

Dr Milena Kim

Adjunct, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Email: milena.kim@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Milena Kim is an environmental social scientist, currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia’s School of Agriculture and Environment.

Her research interests include: the evaluation of social and environmental initiatives; research impact; the interface between science, policy, and practice; Indigenous and traditional natural resource management; future scenarios and social impact assessments focused on subjective wellbeing. Milena is proficient in qualitative and quantitative scientific approaches, especially surveys, interviews, and multi-stakeholder workshops. Her work is transdisciplinary and includes collaboration with social and natural scientists, as well as research users. Milena has worked in Brazil, Spain, England, Fiji and Northern Australia, and is fluent in English, Portuguese and Spanish. Her research has been supported by several merit-based scholarships and she has been awarded over $250,000 in funding.

Capacity/skills: Transdisciplinary (participatory, interdisciplinary, solution-focused) research; cross-cultural and multi-stakeholder research. Design of structured questionnaires, semi-structured interview protocols, household surveys and online surveys. Focus group facilitation. Qualitative data analysis (e.g. thematic analysis in NVivo) and quantitative analysis skills.

Areas of application: Water and coastal management, natural resource management, environmental conservation, Indigenous and traditional knowledge, future scenario planning, higher education policy, fisheries and agriculture.

Current grants: WAMSI-WESTPORT research program, National Environmental Science Program (NESP)’s Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub and Resilient Landscapes Hub.

Prof Ian Bateman

Adjunct, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment

Director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP), University of Exeter.

Phone: +44 (0)1392 724503

Email: i.bateman@exeter.ac.uk

Bio: Ian Bateman is Professor of Environmental Economics and the Director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) at the University of Exeter, UK. He is one of the most highly cited environmental economists in the world. He has been awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit award, and is a Member of the Natural Capital Committee (reporting to the Chancellor of the Exchequer).

He is also a Board Member of the UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee and a member of the Environment Agency LTIS-DG). He led the economics team for the UK National Ecosystem Assessment (UK-NEA) and NEAFO and the NERC Valuing Nature Network, bringing together business and policy decision makers with research experts to examine natural environment and economic issues.

Prof. Bateman has written over 130 peer-reviewed papers in the leading journals in natural science (e.g. Science, PNAS), economics (e.g. QJE, REStat) and interdisciplinary analyses (e.g. JEEM, EcolEc). He has been PI/CoI on over 70 grants worth in excess of £30m and in 2013 was awarded an OBE for services to environmental science and policy.

Dr Ana Manero

Adjunct, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment

Research Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University

Phone: : +61 2 6125 0574

Email: ana.manero@anu.edu.au

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Bio: Ana is a post-doctoral research fellow at the Australian National University, Crawford School of Public Policy, working on water economics and governance. Ana’s current research is focused on improving the understanding and valuation of water resources, for resilient decision-making and greater water justice. Ana also holds an adjunct research fellow position at the University of Western Australia. Her broader research interests include sustainable management of natural resources and the interconnections between poverty, growth and inequality.

Capacity/skills: interdisciplinary research, econometrics and statistical analysis, qualitative research, analysis of economic inequality, stakeholder engagement, non-market valuation, public speaking.

Areas of application: water management, agricultural and international development, mine rehabilitation, surfing economics

Dr Maksym Polyakov

Adjunct, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment

Senior Economist, Manaaki Whenua, Landcare Research.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5509

Email: polyakovm@landcareresearch.co.nz

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Bio: Maksym Polyakov is a Senior Economist at Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research based in Auckland, New Zealand, and an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. Maksym worked at the Centre of Environmental Economics and Policy for nearly 10 years.

Maksym is interested in the integration of ecology and economics to better understand the choices humans make concerning natural resources and consequences of these choices for the environment.

His research experience covers non market valuation of environmental assets, economic analysis of natural resource policies, and bio-economic modelling to support natural resource management decisions.

Dr Elizabeth Petersen

Adjunct, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment

Principal Applied Economist, Advanced Choice Economics.

Phone: +61 (0)404 077 194
Email: Liz.Petersen@tpg.com.au.

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Bio: Liz Petersen is Principal Applied Economist and Director of Advanced Choice Economics P/L (ACE), Adjunct Senior Lecturer in the School of Agriculture and Environment at the University of Western Australia, and Senior Research Fellow in the School of Agriculture and Food Sciences at the University of Queensland.

She has more than 20 years of experience in agricultural, environmental and fisheries research in Australia and internationally. After completing her Ph.D. in 2000, Liz worked for three years at the Australian National University before returning to Perth to establish ACE. She has led more than 50 consultancy projects over the last 15 years and has held specialist short-term appointments at DPIRD since 2013.

She spends approximately half her time on research issues relating to agricultural and environmental economics in Australia, and the remaining half on issues relating to food, agricultural and fisheries economics and policy in developing countries.

Dr Hue Vuong

Adjunct, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 415 890 943

Email: hue.vuong@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Hue Vuong is a multi-disciplinary scientist interested in agricultural and resource economics, evaluation, purchasing and selling activities in enterprises, and economic management. Hue started her 12-year career as a Lecturer at Thuongmai University (TMU, Vietnam University of Commerce) in 2009 and has since gained a lot of experience collaborating with different stakeholders in the academic, private and non-profit sectors.

She has developed well-knowledge and experience working in agricultural and regional development projects in both developed and developing countries. She was recently awarded a PhD in in Agricultural Economics at UWA in 2021. Her research interests is to use evidence-base data to help utilise our resources most efficiently and innovatively to achieve enduring outcomes.

Capacity/skills: Survey design and delivery, statistics analysis, evaluation, benefit cost analysis, non-market valuation, discrete choice experiment.

Areas of application: Evaluation, climate change, supply chain management, agricultural and resource economics, adoption, food safety, and fisheries.

Current grants: INFFEWS contract work, applied BCA course development, GRDC consultancy.

Availability for more work: Hue is working part time and can accept additional work anytime.

Dr Tafesse Estifanos

Associate Member, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5509

Email: tafesse.estifanos@uwa.edu.au

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Bio: Dr. Tafesse Estifanos is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment.

His research focuses on socio-ecological science that integrates ecological, economic, and social aspects of environmental assets, including forest and biodiversity. His expertise includes the application of non-market valuation to estimate the economics of biodiversity conservation and environmental policy evaluation using matching techniques in the context of terrestrial environments. He collaborates with professionals and scientists and has extensive research experiences in Ethiopia, Australia, and the USA. Tafesse’s recent research project at the University of Vermont, the U.S, was on the environment-human health nexus that focused on the impact of land use change on malaria prevalence. Tafesse is interested in improving the understanding of environmental economics to inform decisions on natural resources management that positively impact the environment and society.

Capacity/skills: Socioecological models’ development, biodiversity conservation, Choice experiment survey designs, Choice modelling, Environmental and social survey designs, propensity score matching, large dataset management and analysis, and benefit-cost analysis, evaluation of environmental policy.

Areas of application: Biodiversity conservation, environmental and protected areas management; ecotourism and wildlife attractions; sustainable use and management of terrestrial, coastal and marine resources; nature and human health; ecosystem services; economics of biodiversity and ecosystem services

Current grants: Environmental economic accounting for coastal blue carbon ecosystems (DAWE ex Deakin University)

Availability for more work: December, 2023.

Dr Fitalew Agimass Taye

Associate Member, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 (0)413 858 041

Email: fitalew.taye@uwa.edu.au

UWA Research Profile

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Bio: Dr. Fitalew Taye is an experienced environmental economist working as a research fellow at the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy. His research focuses on non-market valuation of ecosystem services and assessment of community livelihoods. He has led several case studies conducting discrete choice experiments to evaluate preferences for conservation of natural forests using PES schemes. He has been engaged in multidisciplinary projects that aims at protection of natural forests; and recently completed an assessment of adoption for climate smart technologies in a developing country context. He is interested in application of stated preference methods of environmental valuation, benefit-cost analysis, and environmental economic accounting.

Capacity/skills: Micro-econometric modelling and analysis, survey design and implementation, application of discrete choices in various contexts

Areas of application: Valuation of terrestrial and marine ecosystem services, environmental economic accounting, natural resource management, rural livelihoods

Current grants: Environmental economic accounting for coastal blue carbon ecosystems (DAWE ex Deakin University)

Availability for more work: December, 2023.

Dr Veronique Florec

Alumni, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 8 6488 5507

Email: veronique.florec@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Veronique Florec is a research economist at the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy (University of Western Australia). Her research focuses on improving the management of our natural environment through multidisciplinary projects that combine social, environmental and economic information. She uses integrated bio-economic modelling to evaluate the impact of different land management strategies on people and the environment. She completed her PhD in 2016, in which she applied economic analysis to prescribed burning in the south-west of Western Australia. Veronique currently leads a project that focuses on applying economic analysis to the management of natural hazards to help decision makers get better value for money from public investments in hazard mitigation. Her research contributes to the development of tools that improve the management of our natural resources and reduce the risk of natural hazards to humans and the environment.

Capacity/skills: bio-economic modelling, evaluation of natural hazard policies, impact assessment, cost-benefit analysis, interdisciplinary research, decision support.

Areas of application: mitigation of natural hazards (bushfires, floods, cyclones, storms), conservation, climate change, natural hazard impacts, community protection, natural resources management.

Current grants: Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC Economics of Natural Hazards; Energy Networks Australia Estimating the costs of catastrophic bushfires.

Availability for more work: Any time, as an individual or consultant.

Dr Megan Barnes

Associate Member, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Research Scientist (Decision Science), Keiran McNamara Conservation Science Centre, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions.

Phone: : +61 8 9219 9043

Email: megan.barnes@dbca.wa.gov.au

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Bio: Megan Barnes is an interdisciplinary conservation decision scientist. She uses Structured Decision Making to formulate and evaluate applied conservation and natural resource management problems collaborating directly with decision makers and stakeholders.

Megan is especially interested estimation and decision making under uncertainty, cost effective solutions that maximise the on ground impact of conservation actions, and trade-offs inherent in complex multi-objective decisions.

Megan also specialises in quantitative impact evaluation of conservation policy, with a particular interest in the social and ecological impacts of protected areas.

Dr Vandana Subroy

Alumni, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Phone: +61 8 6488 2536

Email: vandana.subroy@uwa.edu.au

Bio: Vandana is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Centre of Environmental Economics and Policy (CEEP) at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, and is currently working at the Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI). Her research focuses on using economic valuation and cost-benefit analysis to help improve guidance on the prioritisation of conservation projects. Vandana’s expertise is in non-market valuation surveys (in particular, discrete choice experiments), cost-benefit analysis, and in survey design and analysis. Her projects include threatened species conservation, valuation of environmental volunteering activities, community values for coastal hazards and their management, and farmers’ interest in adopting on-farm climate change mitigation practices. Previously, she has worked with the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions to develop a cost-benefit model to prioritise the translocation of threatened plants species in the state. Vandana has authored over 10 peer-reviewed publications.

Capacity/skills: interdisciplinary research, choice modelling/choice experiments, travel cost, cost-benefit analysis, non-market valuation, survey design and analysis, focus group and workshop facilitation.

Areas of application: biodiversity, conservation, natural resources management, community values, environmental volunteering.

Current grants: Western Australian Biodiversity Science Institute (WABSI)

Dr Asha Gunawardena

Alumni, UWA Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy.

Research Analyst, Department of Training and Workforce Development.

T:+61 8 6551 5262

Email: asha.gunawardena@dtwd.wa.gov.au