Operation Wallacea
Ian Thornhill MCIEEM is an accomplished academic and expert in planning, environmental management, and ecology, currently serving as a Senior Lecturer at The University of Manchester since December 2021. With extensive experience, including roles as a Freshwater Scientist at Operation Wallacea and Director at Niche Environment and Research Ltd, Ian has significantly contributed to the fields of ecology and conservation. Prior positions include Reader in Ecology and Conservation at Bath Spa University, Research Manager at Earthwatch Institute, and Senior Ecology Advisor at Buckinghamshire County Council. Ian holds a Ph.D. in Freshwater Ecology from the University of Birmingham and additional degrees from The University of Manchester, focusing on environmental and pollution control as well as environmental management. Specialties include citizen science, sustainability, and tropical ecosystems.
Operation Wallacea
Operation Wallacea is a series of biological and social science expedition projects that operate in remote locations across the world. These expeditions are designed with specific wildlife conservation aims in mind - from identifying areas needing protection, through to implementing and assessing conservation management programmes. Large teams of university academics, who are specialists in various aspects of biodiversity or social and economic studies, are concentrated at the target study sites. Research Assistants and dissertation students joining the surveys have the option of customising their own itinerary from a range of training and science options. The surveys result in a large number of publications in peer-reviewed journals each year, have resulted in 30 vertebrate species new to science being discovered, 4 'extinct' species being re-discovered and $2 million levered from funding agencies to set up best practice management examples at the study sites. These large survey teams of academics and volunteers that are funded independently of normal academic sources have enabled large temporal and spatial biodiversity and socio-economic data sets to be produced, and provide information to help with organising effective conservation management programmes.