Murray Collins | LSE and Institute of Zoology

Murray Collins

PhD research topic

Assessing the biodiversity benefits of implementing REDD+ in the peat swamp forests of the Berbak Carbon Initiative, Indonesia.

Background

Deforestation and degradation of tropical forests contribute between 15% of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions. One quarter of these emissions come from the degradation of peat swamps in S.E.Asia. Tropical forests are also the most biologically diverse terrestrial ecosystems. Improving their management could therefore address two of the greatest environmental challenges we currently face: anthropogenically-driven climate change and biodiversity loss. Recognising the importance of tropical forests for climate change mitigation has provided the impetus for international negotiations which seek to provide large financial transfers from financially rich industrialised countries to forest-rich but financially-poorer countries, in order to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+). The impact on biodiversity of such an ambitious scheme will depend upon a variety of factors, particularly how REDD+ programmes are implemented by forest countries. Given both its high rates of deforestation and biodiversity, I am looking at this issue in the Indonesian context, with a focus on the swamp forests of Berbak National Park in Sumatra: key habitat for charismatic mega fauna such as the Sumatran tiger.

Supervision

Here's a short video clip of a ride down the rivers of Berbak (opens new window; external link to YouTube).This topic spans environmental economics and tropical forest ecology. As such I am funded by the NERC-ESRC. Due to focus on forests’ role in climate change mitigation, I am hosted at LSE's Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, where I am supervised by Dr. Susana Mourato. For ecological aspects of the research I am based at the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London, where I am supervised by Dr. Chris Carbone and Dr. Marcus Rowcliffe.

Career profile

I have most recently worked on the economics team of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment. Prior to that I worked as a field researcher for the Government of Gabon, as part of a team performing a carbon stock assessment. This contributed to research into understanding African forest dynamics in response to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide saturation. For background details on this ongoing work see Lewis et al. (2009) Increasing carbon storage in intact African tropical forests. Nature 457, 1003-1006.

Education

MSc Imperial College London, Conservation Science (Distinction)
BSc University College London, Anthropology and Geography
La Sorbonne, Paris V (ERASMUS student)

Publications

2011

Collins, M.B., Milner-Gulland, E.J., Macdonald, E.A. and Macdonald, D.W. (2011). Pleiotropy and charisma determine winners and losers in the REDD+ game: all biodiversity is not equal. Tropical Conservation Science Vol. 4(3) Available online: www.tropicalconservationscience.org.

Mitchard, E. T. A., Saatchi, S. S., White, L. J. T., Abernethy, K. A., Jeffery, K. J., Lewis, S. L., Collins, M., Lefsky, M. A., Leal, M. E., Woodhouse, I. H., and Meir, P. (2011). Mapping tropical forest biomass with radar and spaceborne LiDAR: overcoming problems of high biomass and persistent cloud. Biogeosciences Discuss., 8, 8781-8815, doi:10.5194/bgd-8-8781-2011.

Ian J. Bateman, David Abson, Nicola Beaumont, Amii Darnell, Carlo Fezzi, Nick Hanley, Andreas Kontoleon, David Maddison, Paul Morling, Joe Morris, Susana Mourato, Unai Pascual, Grischa Perino, Antara Sen, Dugald Tinch, Kerry Turner, Gregory Valatin, Barnaby Andrews, Viviana Asara, Tom Askew, Uzma Aslam, Giles Atkinson, Nesha Beharry-Borg, Katherine Bolt, Matt Cole, Murray Collins, Emma Comerford, Emma Coombes, Andrew Crowe, Steve Dugdale, Helen Dunn, Jo Foden, Steve Gibbons, Roy Haines-Young, Caroline Hattam, Mark Hulme, Mallika Ishwaran, Andrew Lovett, Tiziana Luisetti, George MacKerron, Stephen Mangi, Dominic Moran, Paul Munday, James Paterson, Guilherme Resende, Gavin Siriwardena, Jim Skea, Daan van Soest and Mette Termansen, Partha Dasgupta, Brendan Fisher, Karl-Göran Mäler, Steve Polasky and Kerry Turner. Chapter 22: Economic Values from Ecosystems. The UK National Ecosystem Assessment.

Ewan A. Macdonald, Murray Collins, Paul J. Johnson, Lynn M. Clayton, Yadvinder Malhi, Joshua B. Fisher, E.J. Milner-Gulland, David W. Macdonald, (2011). Wildlife conservation and reduced emissions from deforestation in a case study of Nantu National Park, Sulawesi: 1. The effectiveness of forest protection--many measures, one goal, Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 14, Issue 6, October 2011, Pages 697-708, ISSN 1462-9011, DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2011.03.001.

Murray Collins, Ewan A. Macdonald, Lynn Clayton, Iswan Dunggio, David W. Macdonald, E.J. Milner-Gulland (2011). Wildlife conservation and reduced emissions from deforestation in a case study of Nantu Wildlife Reserve, Sulawesi: 2. An institutional framework for REDD implementation, Environmental Science & Policy, Volume 14, Issue 6, October 2011, Pages 709-718, ISSN 1462-9011, DOI: 10.1016/j.envsci.2011.03.002.

2010

White, L., Jeffery, K., Collins, M., Lewis, S., Dimoto, E., Dibakou, J. & Mbouni, A. (2010) Rapport pour le Projet : ECOFAC Évaluation de l’Impact du Changement Climatique au Gabon: Inventaire statistique du carbone contenu dans la biomasse au-dessus du sol, Parc National de la Lopé. Report to the Gabonese government.

Mourato, S., Atkinson, G., Collins, M., Gibbons, S., MacKerron, G. and Resende, G. (2010) Economic Assessment of Ecosystem Related UK Cultural Services, Report to the Economics Team of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, London School of Economics.

Unpublished writing
'Like bombing the Chilterns to catch rabbits' - an essay on why deep sea fish is a problem.

Film

Is it Real? Ape Man. National Geographic 2006.
Short Man of the Forest (2004) Banyak Productions.

Photography

Phoxophrys tuberculata and Gonocephalus klossi in Manthey, U (2010) Agamen des suedlichen Asien: Draconinae 2 Leiolepidinae.

Contact

Email : m.collins@lse.ac.uk

Write to
Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment
London School of Economics
Tower 3
Clements Inn Passage
London
WC2A 2AZ

Last updated: January 2011.