Chris Sandbrook MA MSc PhD

Lecturer in Conservation Leadership and Fellow of Darwin College

My research focuses on the relationship between conservation and local livelihoods in the developing world, evaluating the effectiveness of market-based instruments as tools for conservation and development

Biography

Career

2002-2006: PhD Student, Department of Anthropology, University College London & Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London
2006-2007: Independent Consultant, International Gorilla Conservation Programme, Uganda
2007-2008: Lecturer in Vertebrate Biology, School of Human and Life Sciences, University of Roehampton
2007-2008: Independent Consultant, International Institute for Environment and Development
2008-2009: ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge
2009-2010: Independent Consultant, International Institute for Environment and Development
2010-present: Lecturer in Conservation Leadership, UNEP-World Conservation Monitoring Centre and affiliated lecturer at the Department of Geography, University of Cambridge

Qualifications

MA Natural Sciences, University of Cambridge
MSc Integrative Biosciences, University of Oxford
PhD Anthropology, University College London

Research

Over the past few decades various tools have been developed to mitigate conflict between protected areas and local people who live in and around them. The most popular of these tools has been tourism, which is intended to deliver funding for conservation activities and benefits to local people, thereby encouraging sustainable resource use. However, there is little evidence that this theory works in practice. Much of my research to date has addressed this issue, using mountain gorilla tracking tourism at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Uganda, as a case study. In my PhD work I adopted an interdisciplinary approach, using qualitative and quantitative research methods drawn from the biological and social sciences to assess the impacts of tourism at Bwindi for local people and for wildlife. The results showed that tourism can raise funds for conservation activities and deliver meaningful benefits to some local people, but that there remain considerable costs of tourism and conservation, inequalities in the distribution of costs and benefits, and risks to gorillas themselves.

More recently, I have carried out research on the likely impact of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) initiatives on forest governance, the values held by young conservation scientists, and the biological and social impacts of Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) interventions in Africa.

Publications

Sandbrook, C. & Adams, W. M. (In press) Accessing the impenetrable: the nature and distribution of tourism benefits at a Ugandan National Park. Submitted to Society and Natural Resources
Ahebwa, W., van der Duim, R. & Sandbrook, C. (In press) Tourism Revenue Sharing Policy at Bwindi Impenetrable National Park (BINP), Uganda: A Policy Arrangements Approach (PAA). Journal of Sustainable Tourism
Ahebwa, W., van der Duim, R. & Sandbrook, C. (In press) Tourism, power and partnerships: Investigating a new approach to conservation and development in Uganda. Conservation and Society
Sandbrook, C., Scales, I., Vira, B. & Adams, W. (2010) Value plurality among conservation professionals. Conservation Biology, 25(2), 285-294
Sandbrook, C., Nelson, F., Adams, W. & Agrawal, A. (2010) Carbon, Forests and the REDD Paradox. Oryx, 44(3), 330-334
Sandbrook, C., Roe, D. (2010) Linking Conservation and Poverty Alleviation: the case of great apes. IIED Poverty and Conservation Learning Group Discussion Paper, International Institute for Environment and Development.
Blomley, T., Namara, A., McNeilage, A., Franks, P., Rainer, H., Donaldson, A., Malpas, R., Olupot, W., Baker, J., Sandbrook, C., Bitariho, F. & Infield, M. (2010) Development AND gorillas? Assessing fifteen years of integrated conservation and development in south-western Uganda. Natural Resources Issues No. 23, International Institute for Environment and Development.
Sandbrook, C. (2009) The local economic impact of different forms of nature-based tourism. Conservation Letters, 3(1), 21-28
Roe, D., Nelson, F. & Sandbrook, C. (eds.) (2009) Community Management of Natural Resources in Africa: Impacts and Experiences. Natural Resource Issues series, International Institute for Environment and Development.
Sandbrook, C. (2008) Putting leakage in its place: the significance of retained tourism revenue in the local context in rural Uganda. Journal of International Development, 22(1), 124-136
Sandbrook, C. & Semple, S. (2006) The rules and the reality of mountain gorilla Gorilla beringei beringei tracking: how close do tourists get? Oryx, 40(4), 428-433

External activities

As well as doing formal research, I have a strong interest in applying research recommendations through project work. In 2006 I helped to establish Bwindi Advanced Market Gardeners' Association (AMAGARA), a farming cooperative which aims to increase the access of local farmers living around Bwindi to the market for produce provided by the tourist lodges in the area. Further details of the project can be found on the project website.