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Mark Hirons

Profile

Mark is Research Fellow in Environmental Social Science who is interested in addressing inter-linked social and environmental challenges through interdisciplinary research. He is broadly engaged with research that investigates issues of well-being, inequality and justice with respect to climate change and natural resource governance. He is interested how different values and knowledges interact with institutional and cultural contexts in driving the governance decisions which underpin environmental and social change across a range of scales. 

Previously Mark worked as a post-doctoral researcher working on the Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) ECOLIMITS project. This interdisciplinary project investigated the linkages between ecosystem service provision and the multiple dimensions of poverty in coffee- and cocoa-dominated agricultural settings, focusing on Ethiopia and Ghana respectively. The project used a range of methods to develop a holistic understanding of how ecosystems influence, and are influenced by, socio-economic, political and cultural conditions across various scales. Mark completed his PhD at the University of Reading which examined land-use conflicts between mining and forests in Ghana.

Publications

Morel, A., Demissie, S., Gonfa, T., Mehrabi, Z., Rifai, S., Hirons, M., Gole, T., Mason, J., McDermott, C., Boyd, E., Robinson, E., Malhi, Y. and Norris, K. (2024) “Landscape and management influences on smallholder agroforestry yields show shifts during a climate shock”, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 366.
Chausson, A., Welden, E., Melanidis, M., Gray, E., Hirons, M. and Seddon, N. (2023) “Going beyond market-based mechanisms to finance nature-based solutions and foster sustainable futures”, PLoS Climate, 2(4).
Creedy, T., Asare, R., Morel, A., Hirons, M., Mason, J., Malhi, Y., McDermott, C., Opoku, E. and Norris, K. (2022) “Climate change alters impacts of extreme climate events on a tropical perennial tree crop”, Scientific reports, 12(1).
McDermott, C., Montana, J., Bennett, A., Gueiros, C., Hamilton, R., Hirons, M., Maguire‐Rajpaul, V., Parry, E. and Picot, L. (2022) “Transforming land use governance: Global targets without equity miss the mark”, Environmental Policy and Governance, 33(3), pp. 245–257.
Mehrabi, Z., Delzeit, R., Ignaciuk, A. and Hirons, M. (2022) “Research priorities for global food security under extreme events”, One Earth, 5(7), pp. 756–766.
Maguire-Rajpaul, V., Sandbrook, C., McDermott, C. and Hirons, M. (2021) “Climate-smart cocoa governance risks entrenching old hegemonies in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana: a multiple environmentality analysis”, Geoforum, 130, pp. 78–91.
Grasham, C., Calow, R., Casey, V., Charles, K., de Wit, S., Dyer, E., Fullwood-Thomas, J., Hirons, M., Hope, R., Hoque, S., Jepson, W., Korzenevica, M., Murphy, R., Plastow, J., Ross, I., Ruiz-Apilánez, I., Schipper, E., Trevor, J., Walmsley, N. and Zaidi, H. (2021) “Engaging with the politics of climate resilience towards clean water and sanitation for all”, npj Clean Water, 4(1).
Agrawal, T., Hirons, M. and Gathorne-Hardy, A. (2021) “Understanding farmers’ cropping decisions and implications for crop diversity conservation: Insights from Central India”, Current Research in Environmental Sustainability, 3.
Hirons, M. (2021) “Governing natural climate solutions: prospects and pitfalls”, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 52, pp. 36–44.
Creedy, T., Asare, R., Morel, A., Hirons, M., Malhi, Y., Mason, J., McDermott, C., Opoku, E. and Norris, K. (2021) “Climate change alters impacts of extreme climate events on a tropical perennial tree crop”, Research Square.