Charlie came to Beijing Forestry University in September 2010 to begin her PhD under the supervision of Dr. Shi Kun (BFU) and Dr. Philip Riordan (Oxford University). With her supervisors, in October 2010 she helped set up the research group WI-CATS (Wildlife Institute – Conservation Action and Theory Society). Together with other CATS members, Charlie has worked hard to contribute to the growth of the CATS team, through outreach, teaching and other research efforts. She also worked as a research and teaching assistant for Dr. Shi Kun and Dr. Philip Riordan as well as conducting research for her PhD.
PhD in Nature Conservation Charlie graduated from BFU in December 2015, following 4.5 years working on her interdisciplinary social and ecological PhD studies. Her research gave her the opportunity to manage and train small field teams in protected areas in Yunnan and Jiangxi provinces, collecting both ecological and social data. Read on for a brief synopsis of her thesis:
“Ecosystem services and human-wildlife conflicts are two of the most important and challenging human-wildlife interactions faced by conservation scientists and managers. These interactions are rarely considered simultaneously within a single system and we therefore risk missing opportunities for better understanding and thus improving management. Using lessons learnt from previous studies and through primary data collection from two sites in southern China, this thesis investigated multiple ways to measure the combined patterns of human-wildlife conflicts and ecosystem services within a single system. Methods were designed to ensure maximum applicability to local context and management plans. The most accurate techniques for measuring these interactions however are not always adopted if the necessary time, skills and data are not available. The thesis therefore also specifically tested the use of different approaches in valuing ecosystem services across space, and highlighted implications for informing management. The thesis identified environmental and socio-economic characteristics associated with both human-wildlife conflicts and ecosystem services. These findings were used to identify which areas or households might be potentially vulnerable in terms of having associations with low ecosystem service benefits and high conflict losses. Potential vulnerabilities resulting from the misalignment of attitudes towards human-wildlife conflicts and ecosystem services between different stakeholder groups were also identified. The combined patterns of human-wildlife conflicts and ecosystem services were used to inform specific management plans for two case study sites.”
Research Interests Human-wildlife/ecosystem interactions and conflicts; systems ecology; natural resource harvest/ utilisation; ecosystem services and disservices; understanding human-wildlife interactions to inform top predator conservation; human ecology; conservation planning; improving application of research at the science-management and science-policy interfaces.
Where to find her now: Charlie has begun a post-doctoral researcher position in the Department of Human Dimensions of Global Change at CzechGlobe (The Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences). She is based in Prague, Czech Republic but will be involved in research across Europe, Central Asia and potentially beyond!
Whitham, C., Jianhua, Xiao., Shi, K. & Riordan, P. (in prep) Spatial patterns of human-wildlife conflict loss and ecosystem service gains for protected area management: a case study from southwestern China. Biodiversity & Conservation.
Whitham, C., Shi, K. & Riordan, P. (in prep) Beyond costs and benefits: reviewing research combining human-wildlife conflicts and ecosystem services.Conservation Letters
Whitham, C., Shi, K. & Riordan, P. (2015) Ecosystem Service Valuation Assessments for Protected Area Management: A Case Study Comparing Methods using Different Land Cover Classification and Valuation Approaches PLoS ONE10 (6) e0129748.
Whitham, C., Shi, K. & Riordan, P. (2015) People and protected areas: understanding attitude alignment for more effective conservation Journal of Resources & Ecology 6 (5): 281-292.
Sun, Q.Q., Shi, K., Damerell, P., Whitham, C., Yu, G. H. & Zou, C. (2013) Carbon dioxide and Methane fluxes: Seasonal dynamics from inland riparian ecosystems, northeast China. Science of the Total Environment. 465 (1) 48-55.
Sun, Q. Q., Whitham, C., Shi, K., Yu, G. H., Sun, X. W. (2012) Nitrous Oxide Emissions from a waterbody in the Nenjiang basin, China. Hydrology Research 43 (6) 862-869.