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 nature recovery in East Kent, nature recovery networks 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) and holds the following additional roles:
Professor in Conservation Science
Director of E3 Sharing Space for Nature
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.
ENVI7010 - Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Conservation - (Module Convenor)
Supervision
Current PhD students
James Barton: Investigating the role of large herbivores in UK (re)-wilding projects
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
Jessica Neil- Boss: Understanding and optimising local nature recovery networks in England
Emily Smith: Measuring and maximising the impact of training in conservation
Professional
Founder of Izele, the online conservation social network
