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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. He is currently part of the Management Group of Oxford’s Agile Initiative which pioneers rapid interdisciplinary research for environmental solutions.

Publications

Morel, A. et al. (2024) “Landscape and management influences on smallholder agroforestry yields show shifts during a climate shock”, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 366.
Morel, A. et al. (2024) “Landscape and Management Influences on Smallholder Agroforestry Yields Show Shifts During a Climate Shock”, Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment [Preprint].
MCDERMOTT, C. et al. (2024) “A political ecology and economy of key trends in international forest governance”, in Kleinschmit, D. et al. (eds.) International Forest Governance: A critical review of trends, drawbacks and new approaches. International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO).
Chausson, A. et al. (2023) “Going beyond market-based mechanisms to finance nature-based solutions and foster sustainable futures”, PLoS Climate, 2(4).
Creedy, T. et al. (2022) “Climate change alters impacts of extreme climate events on a tropical perennial tree crop”, Scientific reports, 12(1).
McDermott, C. et al. (2022) “Transforming land use governance: Global targets without equity miss the mark”, Environmental Policy and Governance, 33(3), pp. 245–257.
Mehrabi, Z. et al. (2022) “Research priorities for global food security under extreme events”, One Earth, 5(7), pp. 756–766.
Morel, A. et al. (2022) “Landscape and Management Influences on Smallholder Agroforestry Yields Show Shifts During a Climate Shock”, SSRN Electronic Journal.
Maguire-Rajpaul, V. et al. (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. et al. (2021) “Engaging with the politics of climate resilience towards clean water and sanitation for all”, npj Clean Water, 4(1).