Hope Ovie Usieta
hou20@cam.ac.uk
Tel: +44 (0)1223 336670
Following a Masters degree in Conservation Biology at the A P Leventis Ornithological Research Institute, University of Jos, Nigeria in 2008, I worked with the A P Leventis Conservation Foundation from 2009-2010 as Project Coordinator in charge of implementing the first phase of a Woodland Conservation Project in the southern part of Nigeria.
Research Interests
My interest spans around the impact of agricultural intensification on biodiversity in the Tropics, particularly in Africa and the potential of replacement habitats such as farmlands to conserve species. Agriculture employs 70 percent of Africa’s workforce and conversion to agricultural land and other land use of forest habitat continue in this region of high biodiversity, particularly in Western Africa. For example, in Nigeria, 86 percent of total land area has been converted to agricultural land (World Bank 2010). However the impact of this increasing and dominant habitat on biodiversity in this region is largely unknown. My PhD research aims to understand the relationship between bird populations and the on-going changes in West Africa (Nigeria) farm management practices, for example increasing mechanisation (tractors) and effective herbicide use, with a view to describe this process of change, determine the ecological consequences and understand the mechanism that are resulting in changes in bird populations. This will involve socio-economic survey of the farming communities, within field survey of birds and weeds and quantify yields in the different farming systems.
My PhD is funded by a Miriam Rothschild Studentship in Conservation Biology and supervised by Professor William Sutherland
Publications
- Usieta, O.H., Manu, S. A. and Ottosson, U. (In press) Farmland conservation in West Africa: are hedgerows important? Bird Study
