School of Geography and the Environment

Profile

As an environmental consultant, Cécile developed strong skills in policy analysis and data manipulation. As a Ph.D. student in the Oxford University School of Geography and the Environment (SoGE), she developed skills in data gathering and analysis through intensive fieldwork in Andean and Amazonian tropical forests. More recently, Cécile gained a robust understanding of the UNFCCC processes during a contract in the UN FAO, where she worked on the implementation of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification in UN-REDD+ countries. Cécile combines years of experience in climate change policy analysis with her knowledge in tropical ecology and thorough understanding of forest ecosystem functioning, providing a multidisciplinary approach to her work for the Environmental Change Institute's Ecosystems Science Team.

Cécile's research aims to provide some insights into to the effects of climate change on tropical montane forests. It does so by examining the interactions between environmental factors (temperature, rainfall, light) and above- and below-ground forest carbon dynamics on a transect ranging from 3000 m (26.4 °C) to 220 m (12.6 °C), situated in the Kosñipata valley and Tambopata, Peru. The information obtained through this study can be used by the Peruvian Government to report on REDD+ activities to the UNFCCC.

Professional experience

• February-July 2010: Consultant in the FAO UN-REDD team
  At the international level, I am involved in developing a Proposal for forest MRV systems for REDD+ under the UNFCCC and several peer-reviewed papers on MRV issues. At the national level, I am following MRV system development and implementation in Indonesia and Vietnam and backstopping for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
• August 2009: Freelance project for World Wildlife Foundation (WWF)
  I carried out research for a Guidebook to support the development of early action REDD activities, project lead by Dr P. Moura-Costa.
• September 2008: HSBC Pilot project for Earthwatch
  Earthwatch is undertaking a five-year global programme of forest research, working with HSBC to help their employees learn more about climate change, what it means to the business and what they can do to combat it. I helped set up a pilot project for the first HSBC team collecting data in Wytham woods, Oxford, UK. This involved training and managing a team of 50 HSBC employees to set up and collect data from a 1 ha plot.
• 2007-2010: Conservation International, RAINFOR-Andes, project manager
  I was responsible for coordinating RAINFOR-Andes, a continuation and an expansion of the RAINFOR network. The project aims to provide a solid platform for monitoring the impact of global warming in the Andes over the next decade and beyond. It will result in a peer-reviewed publication, listed below.
• 2004-2006: Freelance consultant for Environmental Resources Management Ltd, Energy and Climate Change Team. List of projects available upon request.
• 2003-2004: Freelance consultant for consultancies, international and governmental organisations. List of projects available upon request.
• 2001-2003: Consultant, Environmental Resources Management Ltd., Energy and Climate Change Team
• Summer 2001: Internship with Ecosecurities Ltd. during MSc thesis.

Recent Publications

• Girardin, C.A.J., Malhi, Y., Aragao, L.E.O.C., Mamani, M., Huaraca Huasco, W., Durand, L., Feeley, K., Rapp, J., Silva-Espejo, J.E., Silman, M., Salinas, N., Whittaker, R.J., Net primary productivity allocation and cycling of carbon along a tropical forest elevational transect in the Peruvian Andes, Global Change Biology, 16:12, 3176-3192, 2010.
• Palin O.F., Eggleton P., Malhi Y., Girardin C.A.J., Dávila A.R., Parr C.L. Termite Diversity along an Amazon-Andes Elevational Gradient, in press, Biotropica.
• Girardin, C.A.J., Malhi, Y., Aragão, L. E. O. C., Durand, L., Zimmerman, M., A spatio-temporal investigation of the factors controlling soil respiration along an elevation gradient in the Peruvian Andes, Submitted, Global Change Biology.
• Girardin, C.A.J., Aragão, L. E. O. C., Huaraca Huasco, W., Malhi, Y., Metcalfe, D., Root dynamics along an elevation gradient in tropical Andean forests, Submitted, New Phytologist.
• Girardin, C.A.J., Manami, M., Feeley, K., Malhi, Y., Silman, M., Salinas, N., A spatio-temporal investigation of the factors controlling aboveground productivity along an elevation gradient in the Peruvian Andes, Submitted, Journal of Ecology.
• Girardin, C.A.J., Jørgensen, P.M., Killeen, T., Malhi, Y., Farfan, W., Garcia, K., Feeley, K., Silman, M., Salinas, N., Reynel, C., Neill, D., Serrano, M., Caballero, J., La Torre-Cuadros, M. A. , Macía, M., RAINFOR-Andes: expanding the Amazon Forest Inventory Network to the montane forests of the Andes, Paper in preparation.

Reports

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading Simulation 4 (GETS4) for Eurelectric, 2004, scenario modeling of the international emissions trading market under different post-2012 "beyond Kyoto" scenarios.
• Recommendations to the European Commission on Monitoring and Reporting of Carbon Capture and Storage under the EU ETS, for UK Department of Trade and Industry, 2004.
• World Bank Guidelines for CDM Projects in China. Guidelines for project developers in waste to energy projects in China, 2004.
• Regulatory treatment of Carbon Capture and Storage in different jurisdictions, International Energy Agency GHG R&D Programme, 2005.
• Malhi, Y., Saatchi, S., Girardin, C.A.J., Aragão, L.E.O.C. Carbon Storage and Flow in Amazonian Forests, Large-Scale Atmosphere Biosphere Proceedings, 2008.

Recent conferences attended

• 23rd New Phytologist Symposeum, Carbon Cycling in Tropical Ecosystems, Guangzhou, China (2009).
• British Ecological Society, Tropical Ecology Research in the UK, Natural History Museum, London, U.K (2008).
• UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP) in Bonn, Delhi, Milan, Poznan, Copenhagen (2000-2009).