Margi Bryant

Conservation, communities and international volunteering in sub-Saharan Africa
Supervisors: Dr Chasca Twyman and Dr Tariq Jazeel

Current research

My PhD research explores the intersection of environmental conservation, participatory development and international volunteering, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1980s, the global conservation agenda has recognised the importance of involving local communities in environmental management, in line with the wider adoption of community participation as a new orthodoxy in international development. However, conservation remains a contested concept in much of the global South. The recent and rapid growth of international volunteering has created new opportunities and revenue streams for conservation projects, but this phenomenon may also bring complex, and so far under-researched, implications for environmental agendas and priorities.

My research draws on the substantial body of work on communities and conservation, alongside the small but growing literature on international volunteering, to explore the dynamics and discourses of volunteer-assisted conservation projects. Research methods will include participant observation, focus groups and interviews, carried out in collaboration with conservation and volunteering organisations, volunteers and local communities, in the context of two or more case study projects.

Research interests

• Community-based management of wildlife and natural resources
• Participatory approaches to international development
• Postcolonial studies, especially related to "nature"
• Environment-development issues

Academic background

MA Social & Cultural Geographies (distinction), University of Sheffield, 2009
Dissertation: Counting on the Colobus: Nature conservation and international volunteering in Kenya's coastal forest

MA Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge, 1976

Career background

After graduating with my first degree in the 1970s I worked as a journalist and information officer in Sudan, Kenya and Jordan, and then as a communications officer for several UK-based NGOs, including the International Institute for Environment & Development (IIED), Oxfam and CAFOD. In the 1990s I undertook freelance work for environmental organisations before joining the staff of a UK National Park. In recent years I have been a self-employed consultant, working with countryside management organisations to involve and engage local communities and visitors.

Funding

• Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), +3 PhD studentship, 2009-12
• University of Sheffield, Department of Geography, fieldwork bursary for MA research in Kenya, 2009
• University of Sheffield, Department of Geography, bursary for MA study, 2007-09

Conferences & workshops

• Oxford Brookes University workshop, "Perspectives on conservation", April 2010: Participant
• RGS-IBG Developing Areas Research Group (DARG), postgraduate workshop, London, April 2010: Session leader
• University of Sheffield International Development Network (SIDNet), Postgraduate conference, March 2010: Co-organiser, co-chair and speaker
• University of Sheffield workshop, "Interrogating contemporary development strategies: The case of tourism", November 2009: Speaker
• RGS-IBG Developing Areas Research Group (DARG), postgraduate workshop, London, May 2009: Participant
• University of Sheffield and Roskilde University (Denmark), "Strangers, visitors, denizens: Spatialities of practice and critique" Master Class, Hebden Bridge, November 2008: Participant.

Contact Details

Address: Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, Winter Street, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK
Fax: +44 (0)114 222 7907
Email: m.bryant@sheffield.ac.uk