Phoebe Barnard

(she/her/they)

6

Articles

36

Comments

I work in, and across, the big issues of the day facing the future of society and our planet - in the realms of planetary boundaries, human impacts (our numbers, appetites, and mindsets underlying ecological overshoot), biodiversity, climate change, global change ecology, environmental and societal futures, and conservation biology, both in science and on policy. To communicate this, I'm increasingly working on tipping points for personal, societal and institutional sustainability, in futures studies, and in the media (especially filmmaking, speaking and scientific and popular writing). I trained originally as an evolutionary and behavioural ecologist working on birds - in Canada (BSc Hons biology), South Africa (MSc zoology with distinction) and Sweden (PhD animal ecology & evolution), and still somehow manage to combine the fine-scale and big-picture stuff in my life.

Experience

  • 2022–present
    Co-founder and co-convenor, Global Restoration Collaborative
  • 2023–2024
    Senior sustainability specialist, Global Evergreening Alliance
  • 2021–2023
    Chief executive officer, Stable Planet Alliance
  • 2005–2023
    Honorary research associate, University of Cape Town
  • 2017–2023
    Adjunct professor, University of Washington
  • 2018–2021
    Chief science and policy officer, Conservation Biology Institute
  • 2017–2018
    Executive Director, Pacific Biodiversity Institute
  • 2014–2016
    Lead scientist: Climate change bioadaptation, South African National Biodiversity Institute
  • 2015–2016
    Lead scientist: Biodiversity futures, South African National Biodiversity Institute
  • 2005–2014
    Senior scientist: Climate change bioadaptation, South African National Biodiversity Institute
  • 2003–2005
    Scientific & technological coordinator, Global Invasive Species Programme
  • 1994–2003
    Founding national coordinator, Namibian National Biodiversity Programme
  • 1999–1999
    Founding national coordinator, Namibian National Climate Change Programme

Education

  • 1994 
    Uppsala University, Sweden, PhD / Animal Ecology and Evolution
  • 1990 
    University of the Witwatersrand, MSc (distinction) / Zoology
  • 1983 
    Acadia University, BSc (Hons) / Biology

Publications

  • 2024
    Earth at risk: An urgent call to end the age of destruction and forge a just and sustainable future, PNAS Nexus
  • 2023
    Earth at the crossroads, The Ecological Citizen
  • 2023
    To restore nature, we must invest more in our children: Understanding the connection between women’s and children’s rights, family planning, and the environmental crisis, LA Progressive
  • 2023
    The human behavioural crisis: A critical intervention point for ecological overshoot, Sage Perspectives
  • 2023
    Turning at the crossroads of humanity, The Messenger
  • 2023
    Slow solutions to fast-moving ecological crises won’t work – changing basic human behaviours must come first, The Conversation
  • 2023
    World scientists’ warning: the behavioural crisis driving ecological overshoot, Science Progress
  • 2022
    How investments in the Earth’s future should be made by Patagonia and others, The Guardian
  • 2022
    Global groundwater wells risk running dry, Merz Institute News
  • 2022
    Access to family planning takes on new urgency in a post-Roe, hotter world, Ms Magazine, News & Opinion Global
  • 2022
    The box and the crossroads, Imagine Magazine
  • 2022
    The jury’s still out on repurposed communities: coastal communities especially challenged in absorbing sea-level refugees, One Day in 2050: a collection of imaginary news articles and analyses from the year 2050
  • 2021
    Six areas where action must focus to rescue this planet, The Conversation
  • 2021
    Body mass and condition of a fynbos bird community: investigating impacts of time, weather and raptor abundance from long-term citizen- science datasets, Ostrich
  • 2021
    The climate emergency: 2020 in review, Scientific American
  • 2021
    World Scientists' Warnings into Action: Local to Global, Science Progress
  • 2020
    World Scientists' Warning of a Climate Emergency , BioScience
  • 2020
    The climate emergency, forests, and transformative change, BioScience
  • 2019
    Tracking species in space and time: citizen science in Africa, Conservation Biology in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • 2017
    Southern hemisphere biodiversity and global change: data gaps and strategies, Austral Ecology
  • 2017
    A 2017 horizon scan of emerging issues for global conservation and biological diversity, Trends in Ecology & Evolution
  • 2017
    Early warning systems for biodiversity in southern Africa – how much can citizen science mitigate imperfect data?, Biological Conservation

Grants and Contracts

  • 2024
    Thrivelands: Sustainable drylands management and restoration
    Role:
    Global Campaign Advisor, Global Evergreening Alliance
    Funding Source:
    European Commission
  • 2014
    Climate vulnerability of endemic birds in a global biodiversity hotspot
    Role:
    Lead Climate Scientist, SANBI
    Funding Source:
    National Research Foundation
  • 2008
    Climate vulnerability of endemic birds in a global biodiversity hotspot
    Role:
    Lead Climate Scientist, SANBI; Lead Researcher, Climate Change Vulnerability and Bioadaptation
    Funding Source:
    Leverhulme Foundation, to Prof B Huntley

Professional Memberships

  • Society for Conservation Biology (distinguished service awardee 2002)
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science
  • American Society of Adaptation Professionals
  • Washington Coastal Hazards Resilience Network
  • Human Health, Education and Research Foundation
  • Council of Fellows, Global Evergreening Alliance
  • Club of Rome, Planetary Emergency Partnership
  • Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers and Thinkers

Honours

Forbes Distinguished Professional Achievement Award, 2019; Distinguished Service Award, Society for Conservation Biology 2002; Fulbright Full Doctoral Grantee 1993-94

Contact Phoebe for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision