Eszter Krasznai Kovàcs

PhD Candidate. Funding: Gates Trust Cambridge

Eszter studies the political ecology of biodiversity conservation through direct incentives in the European Union and Hungary.

Biography

Qualifications

Candidate for: PhD, Department of Geography, Cambridge, 2010 – present
MPhil in Environment, Society and Development – 2009 - University of Cambridge
Masters Environmental Law – 2008 – University of Sydney
B Science (Advanced, Honours) – 2007 – University of Sydney

Awards

Worts Travelling Scholars Fund 2011
Philip Lake Fund 2011
Gates Trust Scholarship 2008, 2009-2013
Half Blue, University of Cambridge, 2009 & 2010
Blue, University of Sydney 2007
Academic Excellence Scholarship, University of Sydney 2006

Research

My research interests are varied. I started research in field ecology and moved into environmental law and policy-making in Australia, focusing on community-based natural resource management. My underlying motivation for engaging in these disparate fields was the common theme of the research-implementation and theory-practice 'gap' in conservation and environmental management.

My PhD focuses on these issues, as I study the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of agri-environmental measures, and particularly High Nature Value (HNV) programmes in Hungary. I investigate the interaction and evolution of agricultural and conservation policy agendas at EU and national scales, and in particular how international ideas of rurality and conservation have sought to change farmhold management and decision-making. I focus in particular on the practices and expectations the state and landholders have of auditing, as this official process is central to farmers' interaction with the state on a yearly basis. By building on the 'lived realities' of these experiences, I draw on political ecology approaches to understand and question what accession and 'Europeanisation' has meant for conservation and farmer's rights in Hungary.

Publications

Publications and presentations

Kovacs, E.K., Bose, A., (in review) Flirting with Boundaries: Gender Performed in the Field
Kovacs, E.K., (2012) "What is the Great Bustard made of, gold?": Conservation on agricultural lands in Hungary, Political Ecology Seminar presentation, University of Cambridge
Kovacs E. K., Crowther, M., Webb, J., Dickman, C., (2012) Population and behavioural responses of native prey to alien predation, Oecologia 168: 947-957.
Kovacs, E.K., (2012) Lived experiences of agricultural auditing, Conference seminar and presentation at Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, February 28, New York.
Kovacs, E.K., (2010) Participation in conservation practice in Eastern Europe: Challenges and opportunities for activism in research, Royal Geographical Society-IBG Annual Conference, 1-3 September 2010.
Kovacs, E.K., (submitted, 2010) Experts in science and law, Environmental Planning and Law Journal

Teaching

Supervision Tutor, Part IA, University of Cambridge, 2011 -
Guest Lecturer, Biodiversity governance and law, November 2011, University of Corvinus, Budapest
Demonstrator, Part I Tripos, University of Cambridge, Easter Term 2010

External activities

President, Cambridge University Australia and New Zealand Society 2012
Green Officer, Sidney Sussex College MCR 2009-10, 2010-11
1sts Women's Fencing team, University of Cambridge, 2008-9, 2009-10
Rower for Sidney Sussex College