Dr Jonathan Loh

Dr Jonathan Loh graduated with a BSc in Biology from University of Sussex, an MSc in Environmental Technology (Ecological Management) from Imperial College, London, and PhD in Ethnobiology from the University of Kent. Dr Loh works on measuring and monitoring the state of global biological and cultural diversity and develops quantitative indicators of their trends. Jonathan also works as a consultant for international conservation organisations such as the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

Dr Loh enrolled as a postgraduate research student in the School of Anthropology and Conservation for a PhD by Published Works, which involved submitting a number of publications on a related theme in place of a PhD thesis. Jonathan did this within the Centre for Biocultural Diversity, whose research is closely aligned with his own interest in the parallels between biological and cultural diversity.

Dr Loh worked for WWF International where, for ten years, he conceived and edited the Living Planet Report, WWF’s biennial report on the state of global biodiversity and human impacts on the biosphere. Jonathan led the development of a number of indicators on global trends including the Living Planet Index, where he collaborated with researchers at WCMC and ZSL, the Index of Linguistic Diversity and Index of Biocultural Diversity, on which he collaborated with Terralingua and the George Wright Society, and the Wetland Extent Trends Index, with WCMC and the Ramsar Convention. Dr Loh has also worked on Ecological Footprinting in collaboration with the Global Footprint Network.

More recently, Jonathan has become interested in cultural evolution and ecology and their relationship with biological evolution and ecology. In particular, he is curious about the spatial congruence in the global distribution of biological and linguistic diversity, and the temporal patterns in the macroevolution of languages and culture.