Iris Berger
Iris Berger
National Geographic Explorer & Conservation Scientist

Ecologist.

Conservation Scientist.

National Geographic Explorer.


 

 
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With a life-long passion for nature and the outdoors, an odd fascination with mathematical problem-solving, and a thirst for exploration, conservation science has always felt like the ideal career path for me.

I am a 27-year-old PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge, researching how food production, sustainable livelihoods, and biodiversity conservation might be reconciled. I am conducting my fieldwork in South India (facilitating my obsession with mangos).

My career and research background have been diverse, spanning five continents and several themes, but united by a common interest in understanding biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, identifying synergies and trade-offs between conservation and human well-being, and assessing the effectiveness of conservation practices and policies.

My love for field research has led to me conducting bird surveys in a previously unexplored forest in Sumatra, identifying ecological corridors in Brazil and Guinea, and assessing chimpanzee habitat quality in Uganda. I have also managed to squeeze in occasional non-academic adventures – cycling across Bolivia, trekking in Tajikistan, and trail-running in Kenya.

 

 Research Interests

How biodiversity conservation can best be achieved in the context of sustainable development and food security

Impact evaluations of land system policies and conservation interventions

Sustainable food systems

Species interactions, assembly and functioning of ecological communities

Nature-based solutions

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I am a conservation scientist interested in conducting inter-disciplinary research on how to solve complex conservation problems, such as identifying land-use strategies and management measures to optimise trade-offs between conservation objectives and human well-being.

I am currently particularly passionate about limiting agriculture-driven biodiversity loss. I employ the land-sparing/land-sharing framework for my PhD research, where land-sparing partitions landscapes (high-yield farming coupled with land spared for habitat conservation) and land-sharing integrates both objectives in the same location (high-biodiversity-value farmland on a larger footprint of land as it tends to be lower yielding). I am exploring the merit of land-sparing and land-sharing strategies for achieving food production, human well-being, and conservation objectives in India, while accounting for the spatial heterogeneity of biodiversity and ecosystem services. As part of this, I am asking whether ‘ecological intensification’ strategies could reconcile the yields of conventional intensive agriculture with the biodiversity-value of low-intensity agriculture by amplifying ecosystem services and thus crop yield through better support of biodiversity.

In general, I am interested in understanding biodiversity and its role in maintaining the functioning of ecosystems and the benefits humans derive from them. I am keen to use these insights to help us predict and manage the response of species and ecosystems to environmental change, with applications from biodiversity conservation to nature-based solutions to climate change.

For my MSc thesis and as part of Prof Yadvinder Malhi’s Ecosystems Group at the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, I studied how population declines of frugivores (especially of large-bodied animals such as forest elephants and gorillas) is affecting tropical forest functioning in Ghana and Gabon.

 
 

 Expeditions and Fieldwork

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Managing agricultural landscapes to optimise ecosystem service delivery, biodiversity conservation, and livelihoods in India

India // Ongoing. I am conducting intensive field surveys, from rice fields to remote forests, for my PhD research.

Moyen-Bafing (Lion) Corridor Project

Guinea // Ongoing. I am leading an expedition that is aimed to identify forest fragments that act as important ecological corridors (especially for West African lions) between Moyen-Bafing National Park, Guinea, and Niokolo-Koba National Park, Senegal.

Amazon-Cerrado ecological corridor

Brazil // 2019. I helped Instituto Araguaia identify areas that are important to wildlife movements between the Amazon flooded forest (Cantão State Park; one of the most diverse and important freshwater ecosystems in the world) and the Cerrado (the world’s most biodiverse tropical savannah). I also contributed to a pan-Amazonian map of areas that are of importance to the conservation of giant river otters.

Tropical Biology Association field course

Kenya // 2018. I attended a TBA tropical ecology and conservation course at the Mpala research centre, Kenya. My research project was focused on identifying the effect of an invasive cactus on the usage of an area by mammalian herbivores.

Rangers Without Borders

Poland, Lithuania, Belarus // 2018. I was part of this multi-disciplinary research study which has been assessing wildlife ranger livelihoods, poaching threat and anti-poaching capability, and opportunities for transboundary cooperation across Eastern Europe.

Chimpanzee diet and habitat quality

Uganda // 2017. For my BSc dissertation, I studied the ecological characteristics (e.g. fruit availability) of the territories of two chimpanzee communities that could help explain differences in their extent of tool-use to obtain food.

Sumatra Megatransect

Indonesia // 2016. I co-led the ‘Sumatra Megatransect’ - a 500 km trek across the island whilst taking a record of all the birds we encountered. As part of this expedition, we collected crucial baseline biodiversity data in a montane rainforest that was previously completely unexplored by scientists, but that is part of the largest intact forest remaining on Sumatra - the Leuser Ecosystem.

Cycling across Bolivia

Bolivia // 2015. This was my first independently organised expedition and it involved cycling the length of the Bolivian Altiplano.

Responses of wildlife to climate change in the Peruvian Amazon

Peru // 2015. I helped assess how climate change, primarily via changes in water levels, is affecting the ecology, behaviour, and populations of aquatic and terrestrial species found within the Pacaya Samiria National Reserve. Consequently, I helped devise climate-resilient and community-based conservation strategies.

Reforestation in the Osa Peninsula

Costa Rica // 2013. I assisted with the establishment of the La Gamba biological corridor (COBIGA) which is aimed to connect the lowland rainforests of the Golfo Dulce region with the upland rainforests of the Fila Cal.

 

 Brief CV

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Education

University of Cambridge. PhD Zoology (2021-2025)

Thesis: “Effectiveness of different agricultural strategies and conservation interventions in limiting food production-driven biodiversity loss in India”

University of Oxford. MSc Biodiversity, Conservation and Management. Grade: Distinction (2019-2020)

Thesis: “Changes in the prevalence of woody plant seed traits as signals of defaunation and downsizing of frugivores in Afrotropical forests”.

University of Edinburgh. BSc Hons Biological Sciences (Ecology). Grade: First Class   (2014-2018)

Thesis: “Food Availability, Tool-use Opportunities, and Diet of Two Chimpanzee Communities”


Work Experience

UN Environment Programme, Communications Division, Intern (2018 – 2019)

University of California, Berkeley, Research assistant (2016 – 2017)

 

Awards / Grants

Whitten Studentship (2021)

Scientific Exploration Society - Inspirational and Scientific Trailblazing (2020)

MSc Biodiversity, Conservation and Management Bursary (2019)

Nigel Winser’s “Porcupine Quill” Award (2019)

National Geographic Early Careers Grant (2017)

Davis Expedition Fund (2017 & 2018)

James Rennie Bequest (2015 & 2016)

Weir Fund (2015)


Fellowships / Academic Memberships

Society for Conservation Biology’s Impact Evaluation Working Group

IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group

British Ecological Society

Scientific Exploration Society

British Ornithologists' Union

 

 Public Engagement

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I engage with current debates within the conservation community as well as with the general public. Through my writing and public speaking, I hope to support a constructive and forward-looking dialogue between the values held by different interest groups that make up the environmental movement.

Speaking

IUCN Global Youth Summit (April 2021)

‘Lessons learnt from leading fieldwork-based conservation studies across five continents’. The IUCN Summit was designed to strengthen connections between young leaders globally and add momentum to growing youth movements for nature and climate. An outcome document to be delivered to the IUCN World Conservation Congress. I spoke at the “I am a Connector: Spanning Generations and Landscapes with Storytelling” workshop on expedition planning and how fieldwork has shaped my views on how conservation should be practised.

Global Biodiversity Festival (May 2020)

Sumatra Megatransect’. I was the youngest speaker at the Global Biodiversity Festival and presented alongside 68 leading conservation practitioners (such as the Director-General of WWF, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and National Geographic Explorers in-residence). I spoke on the ‘Sumatra Megatransect’ expedition I co-led in 2016.

Scientific Exploration Society ‘Oscars of Exploration’ (May 2020)

My acceptance speech – having received the Award for Inspirational and Scientific Trailblazing – and a short summary of the expedition I am leading to Guinea to study wildlife corridors and West African lions.

TEDx University of Edinburgh (November 2017)

A New Golden Age of Exploration’. I spoke on the importance of conducting research expeditions to making scientific discoveries.

Writing

Global Biodiversity Festival – The Book (August 2020)

Sumatra Megatransect’ – A short summary of my expedition to Sumatra, but, moreover, my personal perspective on the current state of conservation and a call for systemic change, addressing the root causes of biodiversity loss.

 UNREASONABLE (August 2018)

In Defense of Leuser: A Trek to Document the Unknown’ – A personal account of our Sumatra Megatransect expedition as well as a discussion of deforestation.

 The Naked Scientists (April 2017)

On the Importance of Expeditions to Science’.

 Sidetracked Magazine (November 2017)

Volcanoes and Vicuñas’ – My attempt at travel writing – an account of my cycle across Bolivia.

Podcasts

The Modern Adventurer Podcast (March 2021)

Cycling the Salt Flats of Bolivia’ – I spoke on a wide range of topics; from what it was like to plan my first expedition when I was 19 (cycling across to Bolivia) to why we need a conservation revolution.

The Pursuit Zone (September 2016)

Sumatra Biodiversity Expedition with Oli Broadhead & Iris Berger