About > External collaborator

Toby is based at the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) in Stockholm, and has collaborated as a Research Associate with IIS since 2012. The primary focus of his work is to assess the challenges facing transitions towards more sustainable land-use systems in Brazil. He has over ten years experience working on science and science-policy issues in human-modified landscapes across the tropics, with a strong emphasis on the management and conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in multiple-use agriculture-forestry landscapes, and the difficulties of balancing environmental concerns with rural development priorities. Central to his work is recognition of the need to understand trade-offs and interdependencies when managing for multiple ecological and social objectives, as well as the continuing need for more effective interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral approaches to address problems of sustainability and resilience.

Before joining SEI Toby was a research fellow at the University of Cambridge for five years, from where he helped found and coordinate the Sustainable Amazon Network - of which IIS is a member - a large interdisciplinary consortium of scientists and graduate students focussed on understanding land-use sustainability challenges facing rural development in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. He works in collaboration with a wide number of research and policy institutions in Brazil, and is actively involved in a number of international science-policy fora, including around the issues of Reducing Emissions for Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+), sustainable forest management and biodiversity offsets. Prior to his current work in Brazil Toby was involved in leading research projects in Belize, Tanzania and Caribbean coral reef ecosystems.

Toby has published extensively on issues relating to biodiversity, environmental sustainability land-use change in the tropics with over 80 peer-reviewed publications, including a reference book on the monitoring and management of biodiversity in forest ecosystems (Earthscan, 2010). In 2012 he was awarded the biannual British Ecological Societies’ Founder’s Prize for significant contributions to the science of ecology.

Toby holds degrees from Edinburgh (2001, BSc), and the University of East Anglia (MSc 2001, PhD, 2007).

Articles:

Cotê I. M., Precht W. F., Aronson R. B., Gardner T. A., Is Jamaica a good model for understanding Caribbean coral reef dynamics?. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 76, 28-31 (2013).

Gardner T. A., Hase A. V., Brownlie S., Ekstrom J. M. M., Pilgrim J. D., Savy C. E., Stephens R. T. T., Treweek J., Ussher G. T., Ward G., Kate K. T., Biodiversity Offsets and the Challenge of Achieving No Net Loss. Conservation Biology, 0, 1–11 (2013).

Moura N. G., Lees A. C., Aleixo A., Barlow J., Dantas, S. M., Ferreira J., Lima M. F. C., Garnder, T. A., Two Hundred Years of Local Avian Extinctions in Eastern Amazonia. Conservation Biology, 0, 1-11 (2014).

Sutherland, W. J., Gardner, T. A., Aider, J. H., Dicks L. V., How can local and traditional knowledge be effectively incorporated into international assessments?. Cambridge Journals, 48, 1-2 (2013).

Pinto L. F. G., Gardner T. A., McDermott C. L., Ayub, K. O. L., Group certification supports an increase in the diversity of sustainable agriculture network–rainforest alliance certified coffee producers in Brazil. Ecological Economics, 107, 59-64 (2014).

Vieira I. C. G., Gardner T., Ferreira J., Barlow J., Challenges of Governing Second-Growth Forests: A Case Study from the Brazilian Amazonian State of Pará. Forests, 5, 1737-1752 (2014).