Dr J Marc Foggin

Marc Foggin is an Honorary Research Associate in the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, and the Director of Plateau Perspectives, an international NGO that supports community-led conservation and sustainable development on the Tibetan plateau and in mountain areas of Central Asia. In his work, he weaves together field experience as a conservation biologist and development practitioner, consulting roles with IUCN, UNDP and other groups, along with his on-going academic research and writing.

Specializing in mountain environments and the complex human dimensions of environmental conservation (and the sustainability sciences more generally), Dr Foggin partners with a wide range of colleagues, communities, and other interest groups. Within the sustainability sciences, relational values are noted as being of greatest significance, both ecologically and theologically. His current interests revolve mainly around a re-visioning of conservation approaches, largely under the umbrella of protected and conserved areas; re-centring local and Indigenous voices in development dialogues; and questioning some of the premises of sustainability as widely practised today (these being tied to primarily economic valuations and thus to the commodification of nature, people, and place).

Dr Foggin participates with a research group at Ca' Foscari University of Venice focused on social and environmental dimensions of China's Belt & Road Initiative. He also is a member of IUCN's World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) and the Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (CEESP), the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB), and the ICCA Consortium, and an International Fellow of The Explorers Club. Most recently, Dr Foggin has joined the International Editorial Board of the journal, Mountain Research and Development.

• Jacobs, P., Carbutt, C., Beever, E.A., Foggin, J.M., Martin, M., Orchard, S., and Sayre, R. (2023) A Decision-Support Tool to Augment Global Mountain Protection and Conservation, including a Case Study from Western Himalaya. Land, 12(7), 1323.
• Ma, T., Swallow, B., Foggin, J.M., Sang, W., and Zhong, L. (2023) Developing co-management for conservation and local development in China's national parks: findings from focus group discussions in the Sanjiangyuan Region. Frontiers in Conservation Science, 4.
• Cieslik, K., Dewulf, A., and Foggin, J.M. (2022) Investigating Project Sustainability. Technology as a Development Object in a Community-Based Project in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan. Oxford Development Studies, 50(4): 289-306.
• Foggin, J.M. (2021) We still need the wisdom of Ubuntu for successful nature conservation. Ambio: A Journal of Environment and Society, 50: 723-725.
• Foggin, J.M., Brombal, D., and Razmkhah, A. (2021) Thinking Like A Mountain: Exploring the Potential of Relational Approaches for Transformative Nature Conservation. Sustainability, 13, 12884.
• Foggin, J.M., Lechner, A.M., Emslie-Smith, et al. (2021) Belt and Road Initiative in Central Asia: Anticipating socioecological challenges from large-scale infrastructure in a global biodiversity hotspot. [Policy Perspective]. Conservation Letters, e12819.
• Hughes, A.C., Lechner, A.M., Chitov, A., et al. (2020) Horizon Scan of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 35(7): 583-593.
• Karpouzoglou, T., Dewulf, A., Perez, K., et al. (2020) From present to future development pathways in fragile mountain landscapes. Environmental Science and Policy, 114: 606-613.
• Wang Y., Wu N., Kunze C., et al. (review editor, M. Foggin). (2019) Drivers of Change to Mountain Sustainability in the Hindu Kush Himalaya. Chap. 2 in, P. Wester, A. Mishra, A. Mukherji, A. Shrestha (eds.) The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment. Springer, Cham.
• Foggin, J.M. (2018) Environmental Conservation in the Tibetan Plateau Region: Lessons for China's Belt and Road Initiative in the Mountains of Central Asia. Land, 7, 52.
• Xenarios, S., Gafurov, A., Schmidt-Vogt, D., et al. (2018) Climate change and adaptation of mountain societies in Central Asia: uncertainties, knowledge gaps, and data constraints. Regional Environmental Change (online).
• Foggin, J.M., and Torrance-Foggin, M.E. (2017) Pastoralism, Development, and the Future of Tibetan Rangelands: Experiences in the Development and Provision of Social Services and Environmental Management. Chap. 13 in A. Gruschke & I. Breuer (eds.) Tibetan Pastoralists and Development: Negotiating the Future of Grassland Livelihoods. Wiesbaden: Reichert. pp. 175-186.
• Foggin, J.M. (2016) Conservation Issues: Mountain Ecosystems. Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences. ScienceDirect: Elsevier Publishing Company.
• Buytaert, W., Zukkafli, Z., Grainger, S., et al. (2014) Citizen science in hydrology and water resources: opportunities for knowledge generation, ecosystem service management, and sustainable development. Frontiers in Earth Science (Hydrosphere), 2: 26.
• Foggin, J.M. (2014) Managing Shared Natural Heritages: Towards More Participatory Models of Protected Area Management in Western China. Journal of International Wildlife Law & Policy, 17(3): 130-151.
• Hodges, J., Foggin, J.M., Long, R.J., and Zhaxi, G. (2014) Globalisation and the sustainability of farmers, livestock-keepers, pastoralists and fragile habitats. Biodiversity, 15(2-3): 109-118.
• Foggin, J.M. (2012) Pastoralists and wildlife conservation in western China: collaborative management within protected areas on the Tibetan Plateau. Pastoralism: Research, Policy and Practice, 2: 17.
• Foggin, J.M. (2008) Depopulating the Tibetan grasslands: National policies and perspectives for the future of Tibetan herders in Qinghai Province, China. Mountain Research and Development, 28(1): 26-31.
• Foggin, P.M., Torrance, M.E., Drashi Dorje, et al. (2006) Assessment of the health status and risk factors of Kham Tibetan pastoralists in the alpine grasslands of the Tibetan Plateau. Social Science & Medicine, 63: 2512-2532.
• Foggin, J.M. (2005) Highland Encounters: Building new partnerships for conservation and sustainable development in the Yangtze River headwaters, heart of the Tibetan Plateau. In, J. Velasquez, M. Yashiro, S. Yoshimura & I. Ono (eds) Innovative Communities: People-centred Approaches to Environmental Management in the Asia-Pacific Region. Tokyo, Japan: UNU Press.
• Smith, A.T., and Foggin, J.M. (1999) The plateau pika (Ochotona curzoniae) is a keystone species for biodiversity on the Tibetan plateau. Animal Conservation, 2: 235-240.
• Blumstein, D.T., and Foggin, J.M. (1993) Playing with fire? Alpine choughs play with a Tibetan red fox. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society, 90: 513-515.