Ian Swingland
Ian Swingland | |
|---|---|
| File:Ian Swingland.jpg | |
| Born | Ian Richard Swingland |
| Occupation(s) | Biodiversity; academia, business and charities |
| Years active | 1968–present |
| Spouse | Berit Viig (1973–1974) Fiona Lawson (1985–present) |
Professor Ian Swingland, OBE, founded DICE (Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology) at the University of Kent in 1989. While at DICE he served as director and was elected to the first Chair in Conservation Biology in the United Kingdom.
Education and academic career
Ian Swingland was educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School, London, followed by London, Edinburgh and Oxford Universities. At London University, he read zoology and social anthropology and published his first scientific paper on the location of memory in a vertebrate in Nature in 1969 while an undergraduate. After working for Shell Research International for a short time, he took a PhD in ecology in the Forestry and Natural Resources Department at Edinburgh University on an FCO/ODA (Foreign and Commonwealth Office/Overseas Development Administration) Scholarship. In 1974 he joined Oxford University Zoology Department for five years funded by NERC (Natural Environment Research Council) and the Royal Society to work on the giant tortoises of Aldabra Atoll, Western Indian Ocean. He has been a former Visiting Professor at the Universities of Michigan, Florence, Auckland, and Manchester Metropolitan and has worked as a mathematician for Shell Research.
In 1979 he was appointed to the University of Kent to create their Natural Science Continuing Education programme and ten years later founded DICE.
DICE
DICE (The Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology) is a multi-disciplinary research and postgraduate conservation training institute which has always maintained its commitment to the ideals set out at its founding: 'to fuse the accumulated experience of practical conservation projects and state of the art biological science with realistic perspectives of economics and the social sciences'. The name was chosen in recognition of Ian Swingland’s good friend, Gerald Durrell, and his lifelong commitment to conservation. Swingland retired from the University in 1999 but continues to serve as Professor Emeritus, and as chair of the Durrell Trust for Conservation Biology which raises grants, scholarships and endowments for DICE so that it can expand its mission.
Involvement with other enterprises
As well as DICE, Ian Swingland has founded many other enterprises and institutions such as: the Herpetological Conservation Trust 1989 (renamed the Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust [1]), an international NGO and the international journal Biodiversity and Conservation 1989, the world’s first multidisciplinary journal in biodiversity management and sustainable development [2]. He also co-founded a number of companies (such as Sustainable Forestry Management) which apply business and market approaches to benefiting conservation, biodiversity and people on an integrated, sustainable and ethical basis [3] and co-founded, with Neil Wates and Colin Spedding, the think-tank RURAL in 1980 (Responsible Use of Resources in Agriculture and on the Land).
He was a draftsman of part of the Convention on Biological Diversity concerning fair and equitable sharing of benefits (PrepComm UNEP Nairobi 1990) and was asked by Peter Scott to create the IUCN/SSC (International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Species Survival Commission) Tortoise Group in 1981 which is now the Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
Ian Swingland has been a Trustee of Earthwatch, and remains a Trustee of Operation Wallacea, and the Rural Regeneration Unit, and many other trusts with interests in global conservation and development [4]. He has served on the RSPCA Council 1990-1995 and as its Wildlife Committee Chair 1985-1990, as well as delivering their 150th Anniversary Lecture. Since 1985 he has served at various times on the Council of Fauna & Flora International [5] and also has been the longest standing board member to the Darwin Initiative, which funds multi-sectoral projects in biodiversity management for the UK government. He was Chair of the Apple and Pear Research Council and serves on the Advisory Board for the Centre for Biodiversity and Restoration Ecology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
International conservation work
As well as being an advisor on conservation and biodiversity management to the World Bank, the Global Environment Facility, the Asian Development Bank, and the UK Government [6], he has also had many other international conservation involvements such as: being employed as a research and management biologist in the Kafue National Park, Zambia, helping to write the management plan; and one of the largest single biodiversity project in the world extending over the largest mangrove forest, the Sundarban Biodiversity Conservation Project in Bangladesh [7]. Professor Swingland has been heavily involved with the Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development, the largest biodiversity project [8] belonging to the Commonwealth and was appointed Chairman of the International Board of Trustees (2002). This 369,000 hectare reserve initiative has transformed itself from a top down donor-dependent project to a more market-driven organisation that works closely with the local community, the Rupununi. He also advised China on integrated ecosystem management projects [9], its aim was to reduce land degradation, create alternative livelihoods, and conserve biodiversity using a market, not donation, approach.
The Swingland Foundation
Ian Swingland is currently establishing, with his family, The Swingland Foundation. Its aim is to provide seed money for projects or initiatives that will improve the environment, improve people’s standard of living, and most importantly, produce a predictable revenue to ensure that it is both environmentally and socially sustainable.
Awards and recognitions
Ian Swingland was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the New Year Honours List for 2007 for his services to conservation [10]. He was given an honorary Doctor of Sciences by the University of Kent for his service to biodiversity conservation [11]. He was awarded the Freedom of London 2001 and made an Honorary Bioscience Fellow, Commonwealth Agricultural Bureau International, 2002. He is a Fellow of the Zoological Society (FZS) 1974, and the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS).. He is a member of the Athenaeum 2004, and the Special Forces Club 2009.
Published works
The Ecology of Animal Movement Swingland, IR, Greenwood, PG (editors). (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983) ISBN 0198575750
Living in a Patchy Environment Shorrocks, B and Swingland, IR (editors).(Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) Hardback ISBN 0198545916 Softback ISBN 978-0198545910
Integrated Protected Area Management Walkey, M, Swingland, IR and Russell, S.(editors) (MA and Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999) ISBN 0 412 80360 7
Carbon, Biodiversity, Conservation and Income: An analysis of a free market approach to Land use change and forestry in Developing and Developed Countries. Swingland IR,. Bettelheim EC, Grace J, Ghillean T, Prance and Lindsay, Saunders S (compilers) Theme Issue for the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 2002
Capturing carbon and conserving biodiversity: the market approach Swingland IR (editor), (Royal Society-Earthscan, 2003) 392 pp. Hardback ISBN 9781853839504, Softback 392 pp ISBN 9781853839511
CO2 e biodiversità: Un approccio integrato a favore del clima e del patrimonio naturale. Swingland I.R. (editor). (Edizioni Ambiente, Milano, Italy, 2004) 296 pp. ISBN 88-89014-19-9
In excess of fifty papers published in books and journals such as Nature, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Journal of Zoology London, Journal of Animal Ecology, Animal Behaviour, and Proceedings of the Royal Society.
References
- ^ Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust http://www.arc-trust.org/
- ^ Biodiversity and Conservation http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/evolutionary+%26+developmental+biology/journal/10531
- ^ Capturing Carbon and Conserving Biodiversity: The Market Approach – see published works. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Capturing-Carbon-Conserving-Biodiversity-Approach/dp/1853839507/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280736510&sr=8-1
- ^ Earthwatch Director Emeritus : http://www.earthwatch.org/downloads/2008_Annual_review.pdf ; Operation Wallacea : http://www.opwall.com/Trust/index.shtml; Rural Regeneration Unit : http://www.ruralregeneration.org.uk/index.php
- ^ Company Number: 2677068 Charity Number: 1011102 FAUNA & FLORA 31 Dec 2005 Fauna & Flora International (FFI) is a company limited by guarantee, incorporated. Professor Ian Swingland (appointed 29th June 2005)
- ^ Report No. PID7208 Project Name Bangladesh-Gorai River Restoration Project http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?print=Y&menuPK=228424&pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&Projectid=P055290 ; Ningxia Integrated Ecosystem and Agricultural Development Project http://www.adb.org/documents/brochures/adb-gef/PRC-GEF.pdf ; Protected Area Mgt. and Wildlife Conservation Project : Sri Lanka http://pid.adb.org/pid/LoanView.htm?projNo=31381&seqNo=03&typeCd=2&projType=GRNT
- ^ Sundarban Biodiversity Conservation Project http://www.adb.org/Documents/PCRs/BAN/30032-BAN-PCR.pdf
- ^ Iwokrama Newsletter - September Issue http://www.iwokrama.org/newsletter/augissue.html
- ^ PRC-GEF Partnership on Land Degradation in Dryland Ecosystems, www.adb.org/documents/brochures/adb-gef/PRC-GEF.pdf
- ^ New Year Honours List for 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/30_12_06_hons_main.pdf http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/58196/supplements/13
- ^ University of Kent http://www.kent.ac.uk/about/hongrads/honorary-grad00.html