Dr Nicolas Deere

Dr Nicolas Deere is a conservation biologist specialising in the practical application of quantitative methods to inform evidence-based solutions for biodiversity management in human-modified tropical landscapes. Nicolas completed his PhD at DICE in 2019, which combined advances in remote technologies and hierarchical modelling to understand the impacts of land-use change, specifically agricultural conversion and selective logging, on medium-large terrestrial mammals in Southeast Asia. 

Dr Deere is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate contributing to a number of projects led by Dr Matthew Struebig and Professor Zoe Davies, including Land-use Options for Maintaining BiOdiversity and eKosystem functions (LOMBOK), Impacts of Forest Loss in Wallacea (IFL Wallacea) and interactions between environmental change and exploitation on tropical mammal megafauna. 

Collectively, these projects aim to unravel the ecological consequences of historical land-use change on biodiversity and provide baseline ecological information on Southeast Asia’s imperilled, but poorly understood mammals to develop robust policy options for threatened species. 

Beyond his postdoctoral commitments, Nicolas acts as Scientific Coordinator for the Sumatran Camera Trap Project which seeks to provide ecological justification for the full protection of Issau Issau Nature Reserve, South Sumatra. 

Dr Nicolas Deere is a member of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology. 

Dr Deere’s research focuses on the development of novel statistical approaches to guide conservation strategies for terrestrial mammals. Mammals occupy key trophic positions in tropical ecosystems: understanding their ecology to inform management thus represents a key consideration in rapidly diminishing forest habitat. 

Dr Deere has particular expertise in camera trap methods and holds a strong interest in coupled technological and statistical approaches to survey rare and cryptic species. Though much of his current research is based in the Sundaland and Wallacea regions of insular Southeast Asia, Nicolas maintains a broader interest in pan-tropical conservation issues, contributing to projects in East Africa and Latin America. 

Central themes of Dr Deere’s research include: 

• Species and assemblage responses to deforestation and habitat fragmentation 
• Spatial prioritisation of degraded forest for conservation and restoration
• Land-use planning to establish connectivity in human-modified landscapes
• Developing spatially explicit models to quantify hunting pressure
• Patterns and processes of defaunation

• Member, ATBC (Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation)
• Member, BES (British Ecological Society)