Department of Botany
ticktin [at] hawaii [dot] edu
As a conservation biologist and ethnoecologist, my research centers on the links among local resource use, biodiversity conservation and resilience. Ninety percent of the world’s tropical forests lie outside of protected areas and most protected areas are used in some way by the people who live in and around them. My research questions revolve around two, interrelated themes: How can we balance human use and conservation? How can we maintain or increase the resilience of coupled natural –human systems to global environmental change? My students and I use a combination of approaches, integrating plant ecological monitoring and field experiments, population modeling, interviews with resource users, and participatory research. We collaborate with social and natural scientists, conservation and cultural practitioners and local community members. [website]