About James Reardon
James Reardon is a conservationist and zoologist, with a PhD in
evolutionary ecology.
A lifelong fascination for the complexity of the natural world has
lead to career as a conservation biologist that has led him, over
the past 15 years to live in and explore the Commonwealth of
Dominica and the West Indies; Alaska, Wyoming and Louisiana in the
US; Greece, South East Asia, Kazakhstan, Borneo, Africa, China,
South America, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Australia.
Moving to New Zealand from his native Wales was a natural
progression and was motivated by a desire to move beyond science
and into the practical and applied world of conservation management
- a field in which New Zealand is currently a world leader.
Settling first in Alexandra amongst the picturesque but
ecologically denuded hills of Central Otago, James became involved
in threatened species management as a Landcare Research ecologist
investigating disease and parasite ecology in critically endangered
lizard populations.
This work lead to James taking up the role of Department of
Conservation manager and scientist for the Grand and Otago Skink
Recovery Programme and together with a dynamic and dedicated team
of rangers they reversed an imminent decline towards extinction,
but following three years of hypothesis driven adaptive management,
both species were recovering to security within a multi-pest
landscape management programme.
Following this successful outcome James took a short break from the
challenges of conservation in NZ to become the scientific advisor
to the Zoological Society of London's international conservation
programmes. This role involved a fascinating insight into the
workings of international environmental NGOs, the global financial
institutions which resource such organizations and the challenging
politics of bringing accountable conservation management to
developing nations.
James returned to New Zealand at the end of 2009 to take up the
role of technical officer responsible for threatened fauna and
ecosystem management for Southland and now gets to proudly call
Fiordland, Rakiura/Stewart Island and the Sub-Antarctics his
'patch'.
Together with a scientific training and years as a conservation
biologist, James has a background in photography and wildlife
cinematography, filming for a number of award winning
documentaries.
More information here:
www.jamesreardon.wordpress.com
www.jamesreardon.org
