Dr Mark Spalding
- Honorary Research Fellow
- Senior Marine Scientist, The Nature Conservancy
- Science Advisor, Chagos Archipelago
Contact
Connect
Location
- Strada delle Tolfe 14, Siena 53100, Italy
About
Mark Spalding has a passion for the natural environment, particularly the oceans. He has worked continuously in the international conservation arena since graduating, and while studying for his PhD. He has built up an extensive experience, including fieldwork, regional and global studies. Alongside producing key publications on tropical coastal ecosystems he has worked more widely on oceans and protected areas issues, most recently having a strong focus on measuring ecosystem service delivery at large to global scales.
Current position.
His work centres on the mapping and modelling of ecosystem services, including nature-dependent tourism, coastal protection, fisheries enhancement and carbon storage and sequestration. He has a particular expertise and considerable experience in mangrove forests, coral reefs and in marine protected areas. Much of this work is collaborative with international academic and NGO partners, and importantly as principle investigator with post-doctoral researchers and others in Cambridge. The aim of this work is to communicate, inform and support global, regional and local science and policy audiences as a means of ensuring timely and appropriate conservation actions and investments. Key components of ongoing work include:
- Research and modelling of the role of ecosystems in coastal protection
- Reviewing and modelling the role of mangroves and coral reefs in fisheries enhancement
- Investigations into the quantification of tourism and recreation values of key coastal ecosystems
Science communication has been a major theme for a number of years with regular interviews for print and broadcast media and contributions through educational film and radio scripts and narration.
In his role as a lead science advisor to the the Chagos Archipelago, Mark has provided advice to the government on a broad range of environmental issues since 2014. This includes ongoing research programmes, and on management measures around the coral reefs and islands, and the large military installation of Diego Garcia. Chagos includes one of the world's largest marine protected areas, with some of the world's least impacted coral reefs.
Previous Employment
2002-2004 – Independent consultant, with positions as a Research Associate, Cambridge Coastal Research Unit, University of Cambridge and Senior Consultant, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Outputs included: A Guide to the Coral Reefs of the Caribbean
1998-2002 - Senior Marine Ecologist, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC). Led research and managed team on coral reefs, mangroves and seagrasses. Managed marine protected areas information. Outputs included Reefs at Risk, World Atlas of Coral Reefs, World Atlas of Seagrasses.
1994-1998 – PhD, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. Also wrote World Mangrove Atlas.
1990-1994 - Marine Research Officer, WCMC. Co-ordinator of marine activities, working on marine protected areas, small island states, and coral reef and mangrove mapping.
University.
Clare College, Cambridge (1987-90). Natural Sciences.
Clare College and Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (1994-1998). PhD
Project management experience
Lead scientist, Mapping Ocean Wealth. Initially a 3-year project with global and field components developing tools and maps of key ecosystem services and placing these into policy-relevant outputs, reports and communications.
Natural Coastal Protection. Supervising a post-doc and associated international partners to investigate and better quantify the importance of natural ecosystems as coastal defence. Leading 3 international workshops
Oyster Reef Ecosystem Services. Supervising a post-doc and Science Advisory Group of 15 experts to review the historic and present distribution of oyster reefs in the US and quantify key ecosystem services
Marine Ecoregions of the World. Selected and led a group of 15, representing 11 different organisations, in a 2-year process to devise a biogeographic categorisation for the world’s coasts and oceans
Global habitat mapping. Led global mapping work on coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses and saltmarshes with UNEP-WCMC, FAO and other partners.
Coral reef research expeditions. Undertaken several expeditions and led or co-led boat-based expeditions to the Seychelles and Chagos Archipelago in 1998, 1999, 2001, and 2005. Field visits in advisory capacity to Chagos Archipelago annually since 2014.
Research
Global and regional reviews and assessments of marine ecosystems, ecosystem services, threats and conservation efforts.
The Nature Conservancy is, by most metrics, one of the “big hitters” in the world of international nature conservation efforts – working in 70 countries, and seeking to influence policy and society at local, national and global levels. TNC is one of the leading NGOs in marine conservation, with hundreds of field practitioners across the Americas, Asia and the Pacific and Indian Oceans: we are actively engaged in fishing villages in Indonesia, restoring shellfish reefs in the USA, supporting national governments in marine spatial planning in the Caribbean and much much more. But such efforts would remain piecemeal without a broader vision and the means to tell the wider story and spread the messages of success.
The Nature Conservancy’s (TNC) work in marine and coastal settings attempts to connect the vast wealth of experiences within and beyond our organisation, to share ideas and to develop new ones. My own work has a strong focus on global assessments of biodiversity distribution and the ecosystem services from these. I also look at large-scale human impacts and conservation efforts. Such information is critical to influence regional to global-level decisions which are becoming increasingly important in the face of globalised threats such as climate change and overfishing.
It is essential that such large-scale assessments are fully informed by, and closely connected to, conservation practice on the ground. This needs to be a 2-way flow, with the big-picture information also feeding back down to finer scales in order to inform and provide context for conservation action on the ground. Being based in Cambridge University also provides a critical peer-network – a place where hard-thinking, and positive criticism helps to shape and build ideas; and also a place with an extraordinary web of other environmental NGOs and practitioners (see www.cambridgeconservationforum.org.uk).
Working with post-docs and partners we are helping to inform conservation management, priority setting and future investment policies. Our work aims to inform national governments, global policy, and the international efforts to undertake conservation actions on the ground. We achieve this through engagement in academic and policy fora, and in the regular and high profile, publication of scientific findings which will inform and direct academic, policy and public awareness. TNC has a particular influence through its national level engagement with country programmes making regular direct use of our science, and through feeding our findings into wider programmes including the Blue Bonds debt refinancing projects which are driving marine spatial planning and protected areas expansion in countries around the world.