Marcus Collier

Marcus is fascinated by the human-nature interface and he specialises in social-ecological systems thinking. His many research interests include land use and land-use change, resilience thinking and societal transitioning, collaborative management and planning, urban and rural governance. Notable examples of his research include the contentious policy issues of biomass/bioenergy land-use policies and implications, afforestation policies and acidification processes, field boundaries and agri-environmental change, resource use and after-use policies, rewilding, GM crops and biodiversity, marine and coastal governance, (cultural) ecosystem services, and well-being. In recent years he has published extensively on contested issues such as novel ecosystems and nature-based solutions.

As an environmental consultant, prior to entering academia, he worked with communities and volunteers as well as non-governmental agencies to co-create and implement environmental projects through adaptive collaborative processes. It was during this time that he noticed the incredible power and influence that contact with nature had on augmenting community resilience, capacity-building and promoting cohesion, especially in areas of conflict. Marcus draws on these practical experiences in the past for the co-creation and co-design of environmental projects and to shape empirical research methodologies for use in testing new mechanisms for collecting data. This co-production of knowledge (transdisciplinarity) is essential for achieving the proposed Sustainable Development Goals. His PhD research was an exploration of collaborative governance policies and future land use in severely damaged landscapes. For this, he examined (conflicting) stakeholder rationalities and power asymmetries.