Anna Lawrence, BA, MSc, PhD

Head of the Social and Economic Research Group, Centre for Human and Ecological Sciences

Anna Lawrence combines a background in botany (BA in Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge) and forestry (MSc in Forestry and its relation to land use, University of Oxford) with social science (PhD, University of Reading: 'Tree-cultivation in upland livelihoods in the Philippines: implications for biodiversity conservation and forest policy’). She has 20 years of experience in social forestry, and research into the cultural, social and political aspects of environmental management, in 23 countries.

She established and developed the Human Ecology Programme at Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute during 2001-2007, where her research focused on participatory research for adaptive forest management; institutional change in forestry in post-socialist Europe; and organisational adaptiveness in the UK biodiversity action plan. This built up a focus on the roles of citizen science, emotion and culture in response to environmental change.

She moved to the Forestry Commission (Forest Research) in January 2008.

Anna is a Visiting Professor in the Forest and Nature Conservation Policy Group, University of Wageningen, Netherlands.

Current role

Head of the Social and Economic Research Group, Centre for Human and Ecological Sciences

Responsible for strategic development and management of a programme of research into social benefits of trees woods and forests, and community and policy engagement.

Current programmes

Particular responsibilities in the following:

• Development of a systematic social evidence framework for planning and analysing research into society and forests
• Community forestry: analysis of emerging models in Great Britain
• Role of forestry in devolved and local spatial planning systems
• Value of partnership to the Forestry Commission
• Role of monitoring and evaluation in adaptive forestry organisations
• Enhancing relevance and uptake of decision support systems in forestry
• Knowledge and communication for adaptive forest management in the context of climate change.

Research areas

• Community forestry
• Participatory forest governance
• Adaptive forest management
• Learning organisations.

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Publications since 2000

Books

Taking Stock of Nature: participatory biodiversity assessment for planning policy and practice.
Lawrence, A. (ed) (2010).
Cambridge University Press. 

Lawrence A. & Hawthorne W. (2006). Plant identification: creating user-friendly field guides for biodiversity management. Earthscan, London. ISBN: 1 84407 079 4

Lawrence A. (2000). (ed) Forestry, forest users and research: new ways of learning. ETFRN, Wageningen, Netherlands / ANN-ETFRN, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-9501392-0-6.

Peer-reviewed papers

Lawrence, A., B. Anglezarke, B. Frost, P. Nolan, & R. Owens. (in press). What does community forestry mean in a devolved Great Britain? International Forestry Review.

Lawrence, A., Molteno, S. & Butterworth, T. (in press). Community wildlife sites in Oxfordshire: new ecological and social meanings. International Journal of the Commons.

Lawrence A. (2009). The first cuckoo in winter: British phenology recording, credibility and meaning. Global Environmental Change.

Lawrence A. (2009). Forestry in transition: imperial legacy and negotiated expertise in Romania and Poland. Forest Policy and Economics.

Menton, M. C.S., Merry, F.D., Lawrence, A. & Brown, N. (2009). Company-community logging contracts in Amazonian settlements: impacts on livelihoods and NTFP harvests. Ecology and Society, in press.

King, L.E., Lawrence, A., Douglas-Hamilton, I. & Vollrath, F. (2009). Beehive Fence Deters Crop-raiding Elephants.  African Journal of Ecology.

Lawrence A. (2008). Experiences with participatory conservation in post-socialist Europe. International Journal of Biodiversity Science and Management 4 (2008) 179–186.

Szabo, E.A., Lawrence, A., Iusan, C., & Canney, S. (2008). Participatory protected area management – A case study from Rodna Mountains National Park, Romania. International Journal of Biodiversity Science and Management 4 (2008) 187–199

Turnock, D. & Lawrence, A. (2007). Romania’s forests under transition: changing priorities in management, conservation and ownership. Geographica Timisiensis 16 (1): 5-28.

Lawrence, A. (2007). Beyond the second generation: towards adaptiveness in participatory forest management. CABI Reviews: Perspectives in Agriculture, Veterinary Science, Nutrition and Natural Resources 2 (28): 1-15.

Lawrence, A., Paudel, K., Barnes, R. & Malla, Y. (2006). Adaptive value of participatory biodiversity monitoring in community forestry, Nepal. Environmental Conservation. 33 (4): 325-334.

Lawrence, A. (2006). “No personal motive?” Volunteers, biodiversity and the false dichotomies of participation. Ethics, Place and Environment 9 (3): 279-298.

Lawrence, A., Phillips, O., Reategui, A., Lopez, M., Rose, S., Wood, D. & José, A. 2005. Local values for harvested forest plants in Madre de Dios, Peru: towards a more contextualised  interpretation of quantitative ethnobotanical data. Biodiversity and Conservation 14: 45-79

Lawrence, A. & Szabo, A. (2005). Ethics and culture in the forestry profession: emergent changes in post-communist Romania. Silva Carelica: special issue on Forest Ethics. 49: 303-314.

Sheil, D. & Lawrence, A. (2004). Tropical biologists, local people and conservation: new opportunities for collaboration. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 19: 634-638.

Lawrence, A. (2003). "No forest without timber?" International Forestry Review 5(2): 3-10.

Lawrence, A., Ambrose-Oji, B., Lysinge, R. & Tako, C.  (2000).  Exploring local values for forest biodiversity on Mount Cameroon. Mountain Research & Development 20(2):112-115.

Felsing, M., Haylor, G., Lawrence, A. & Norrish, P. (2000). Reaching rural poor – developing a strategy for the promotion and dissemination of participatory aquaculture research: A case study from Eastern India. Journal of Extension Systems 16: 82-106.

Peer-reviewed book chapters

Lawrence, A. & Molteno, S. (in press). From rationalism to reflexivity? Reflections on change in the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. In: Eric Brousseau, Tom Dedeurwaerdere, Bernd Siebenhüner (eds.) Reflexive governance for global public goods. MIT Press.

Lawrence, A. (in press). Taking stock: learning from experiences of participatory biodiversity assessment. In: Lawrence, A. (ed.) Taking Stock of Nature: participatory biodiversity assessment for planning policy and practice. Chapter 1. Cambridge University Press.

Lawrence, A. (in press). The personal and political of volunteers’ data: towards a national biodiversity database for the UK. In: Lawrence, A. (ed.) Taking Stock of Nature: participatory biodiversity assessment for planning policy and practice. Chapter 12. Cambridge University Press.

Lawrence, A. & Gillett S. (2004). Collaborative forest management. In: Burley J., Evans J. and Youngquist J. (eds) Encyclopaedia of Forest Sciences, pp. 1143-1157. Elsevier, Oxford.

Lawrence, A. (2004). Social values. In: Burley J., Evans J. and Youngquist J. (eds) Encyclopaedia of Forest Sciences, pp. 1126-1131. Elsevier, Oxford.

Lawrence, A. (2003). Participatory ecological monitoring in protected areas. In: Jaireth H. and Smyth D. (eds) Innovative Governance: Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and Protected Areas, pp. 249-267. IUCN. Ane Books, New Delhi.

Lawrence, A. & van Rijsoort, J. (2003). A practical guide to participatory biodiversity assessment. In UNEP (ed) Biodiversity Assessment: a methods manual for practitioners. UNEP / World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

McDonald, M., Lawrence, A. & Shrestha, P. (2003). Soil erosion. In: Schroth G. and Sinclair F.L. (eds) Trees, Crops and Soil Fertility, pp. 325-344. CAB International.

Lawrence, A. (2001). Creating New Knowledge for Soil and Water Conservation in Bolivia. In: R. Jeffery and B. Vira (eds.) Conflict and Cooperation in Participatory Natural Resource Management, pp. 171-188. Palgrave, London.

Lawrence, A. & Green K. (2000). Research and participatory forest management: comparing the priorities of resource users and development professionals ^(PDF-159K). Pp. 63-70 in: Lawrence A.(ed) Forestry, forest users and research: new ways of learning. ETFRN, Wageningen, Netherlands / ANN-ETFRN, Vienna, Austria. ISBN 3-9501392-0-6.

Lawrence, A., Haylor, G., Barahona, C. & Meusch, E. (2000). Adapting participatory methods to meet different stakeholder needs: farmers’ experiments in Bolivia and Laos. Pp. 50-67 in Estrella M., J. Blauert, D. Campilan, J. Gaventa, Julian Gonsalves, Irene Guijt, Deb Johnson and Roger Ricafort (eds) Learning from Change: Issues and Challenges in Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation. Intermediate Technology Publications, London. ISBN 1 85339 469 6

Other

Lawrence, A., and N. Dandy. (2010). Landowners’ attitudes to woodland creation and management: a review of evidence in the UK ^(PDF-449K). Summary report. Forest Research.

Lawrence, A., N. Dandy, and J. Urquhart. (2010). Landowners’ attitudes to woodland creation and management: a review of evidence in the UK ^(PDF-2639K). Full report. Forest Research.

Lawrence, A. (2008). But is it science? A day with the CCFG at Stourhead (Western) Estate, Wiltshire ^(PDF-485K). Continuous Cover Forestry Group Newsletter 28: 16-17.

Tucker, G., Bubb, P., de Heer, M., Miles, L., Lawrence, A., Bajracharya, S.B., Nepal, R. C., Sherchan, R. & Chapagain, N.R. (2005). Guidelines for Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring for Protected Areas. WCMC / UNEP / KMTNC, Kathmandu, Nepal. 132 pp.