Using the case of illegal manta ray trade in Indonesia to evaluate the impact of wildlife trade policy

Author

Hollie Booth

I’ve always felt that people and nature are intrinsically linked, and that all lives – human and animal – deserve moral consideration. With a passion for nature and the outdoors, a desire to improve human lives, and a thirst for knowledge and exploration, conservation science has always felt like the ideal career path for me.

My career and research background had been quite diverse, spanning three continents and several themes, from international environmental policy in Cambridge, UK; to community-based tourism in Ethiopia; to protected area management and anti-wildlife trafficking in Serengeti National Park, Tanzania; to saving sharks and rays in Indonesia.

Despite this variety, I have always maintained a common interest in understanding synergies and trade-offs between conservation and human well-being, and assessing the impact of conservation interventions. I am interested in cost-effective conservation, and ways of maximising conservation outcomes for minimum cost to society. I enjoy researching complex inter-disciplinary conservation issues in challenging contexts, especially where the results can inform management and lead to measurable conservation impact.

I’m a first-generation PhD from Birmingham, and passionate about equity and diversity in science. In particular, I’m interested in promoting participation of women, local people, minority groups, and people from low-income backgrounds in conservation.