Professor Bob Smith is a conservation scientist and his work mainly focuses on conservation areas and designing nature recovery networks. Much of his research has involved leading long-running projects in Southern Africa and the UK, but Bob has worked on projects in 22 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. He is the Centre Lead of the E3 ‘Sharing Space for Nature’ initiative, an £8.3 million project focusing on wilding in East Kent, nature recovery in South East England and meeting global conservation area targets.
Professor Smith's research also encompasses a broad range of conservation topics, including wilding, understanding and mitigating human-wildlife conflict, Key Biodiversity Areas and conservation management effectiveness. He has published seminal work on the influence of corruption in conservation and the role of marketing in conservation.
Bob is an Honorary Senior Fellow at the United Nations Environment Programme – World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the Founder of the Izele online conservation social network, on the Editorial Board of the journal Oryx and a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.
Professor Smith is the Director of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE).
Research interests
The role, extent and impacts of different types of conservation area in meeting the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework targets.
Developing protected area and OECM (other effective area-based conservation measures) networks, with a particular focus on the Maputaland Centre of Endemism in Eswatini, Mozambique and South Africa.
Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and how best to incorporate KBAs into systematic conservation planning approaches.
Assessing and improving the effectiveness of Local Nature Recovery Strategies in England for achieving conservation and restoration goals in multifunctional landscapes.
Wilding and re-wilding and its scope for landscape-scale nature recovery in the UK.
Teaching
SACO7010 - Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Conservation (module convenor)
WCON5450 - Conservation Policy and Practice
Supervision
Current PhD students
Sam Aizlewood: How and where should we expand woodlands to benefit people and biodiversity? (co-supervisor)
James Barton: Investigating the role of large herbivores in UK (re)-wilding projects
Rosa Deen: Animal and human-animal interactions in the semi ‘wild’ environments of South African nature reserves (co-supervisor)
Nuwanthika Dharmaratne: Understanding the role of different types of conservation area in meeting global biodiversity protection targets
Liam Hughes: Restoring biodiversity and functional connectivity in community-managed forests in Sumatra (co-supervisor)
Sophie Jago: Unifying wild and agrobiodiversity conservation in twin biodiversity hotspots for equitable and sustainable implementation area-based conservation targets
Diego Juffe Bignoli: Incorporating biodiversity conservation into development corridor planning in Kenya and Tanzania (co-supervisor)
Sospeter Kiambi: Human-elephant co-existence in a post-ivory ban landscape (co-supervisor)
Emily Smith: Measuring and maximising the impact of training in conservation
Professional
Founder of Izele, the online conservation social network
