I am interested in social aspects of tropical forest conservation, with a focus on how to understand and monitor bushmeat hunting systems. This has taken me into the world of social marketing, to look at ways we can more effectively target our conservation interventions. Tasked with practical challenges of measuring behaviour, I have also explored low-technology interview methods and data bias in hunting surveys.
Since 2014 I have been working with the RSPB in the Gola Forest, Liberia, on a project to support peoples’ livelihoods, and protect forest wildlife, through community-based management. Previously I was involved in a large-scale study of wild Chimpanzees, running a field site for the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology’s Pan-African Programme. This project used camera traps to discover new cultural behaviours and addressed broader questions about virus evolution and tropical ecology. Prior to this I worked at the Guassa Gelada Research Project in Ethiopia.
I am also a member of the Conservation and Behaviour group of Dr Sarah Papworth and the Conservation Science group of Dr Aidan Keane.
Selected publications
Jones, S., Papworth, S., Keane, A., St John, F.A.V., Smith, E., Flomo, A., Vickery, J. (2019). Incentives and social relationships of hunters and traders in a Liberian bushmeat system. Biological Conservation, 237, 338-347.
Jones, S., Keane, A., St. John, F. A. V., Vickery, J., & Papworth, S. (2019). Audience segmentation to improve targeting of conservation interventions for hunters. Conservation Biology, 33, 895-905.
Jones, S., Burgess, M. D., Sinclair, F., Lindsell, J., & Vickery, J. (2017). Optimal Monitoring Strategy to Detect Rule-breaking: A Power and Simulation Approach Parameterised with Field Data from Gola Rainforest National Park, Sierra Leone. Conservation and Society, 15, 334-343.
Kühl, H. S., Boesch, C., Kulik, L., Haas, F., Arandjelovic, M., Dieguez, P., … Kalan, A. K. (2019). Human impact erodes chimpanzee behavioral diversity. Science, 363(6434), 1-8.
Heinicke, S., Mundry, R., Boesch, C., Amarasekaran, B., Barrie, A., Brncic, T., … Kühl, H. S. (2019). Advancing conservation planning for western chimpanzees using IUCN SSC A.P.E.S. – the case of a taxon-specific database. Environmental Research Letters, 14, 1-26.
Hoffmann, C., Zimmermann, F., Biek, R., Kuehl, H., Nowak, K., Mundry, R., … Leendertz, F. H. (2017). Persistent anthrax as a major driver of wildlife mortality in a tropical rainforest. Nature, 548(7665), 82-86.
Sorrel Jones
Sorrel.cz [at] gmail.com