Food and environment

Our team of academic experts seeks to identify key opportunities and use these to harness the potential of our society, both at a local and international level. Learn more about our team below.

Dr Judy Fisher

Dr Judy Fisher is Lead Expert for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Commission on Ecosystem Management Thematic Group Ecosystems and Invasive Species, which works with experts from 50 countries to implement a holistic approach to identify and respond to the negative impacts which invasive species may have on food security, food production, biodiversity, livelihoods, human health and wellbeing, in terrestrial, aquatic and marine ecosystems.

Judy has been elected by 130 governments to the 25 member IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel. She is also Co-Chair of the IPBES Indigenous and Local Knowledge Task Force, which works to incorporate indigenous traditional knowledge and local knowledge into all IPBES activities.

Professor Alex Gardner

Alex Gardner is Professor of Law at The University of Western Australia where he teaches Administrative Law, Environmental Law and Water Resources Law to Juris Doctor and postgraduate students.

Alex researches in Natural Resources and Environmental Law, with a special focus on Water Resources Law. In 2009–2014, he was a Chief Investigator with the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training, and in 2012–2017 was a Key Researcher with the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. Alex has been a contributing editor to the Environmental and Planning Law Journal since 1993 and was the Editor of the Australian Resources and Energy Law Journal from 2012–17.

In December 2015 he became Convener of the management committee of the Environmental Defenders Office Western Australia.

Professor Anas Ghadouani

Anas Ghadouani is Professor and Program Chair of Environment Engineering at UWA. Anas has over 25 years’ experience in research in water resources (water and wastewater), ecological engineering and environmental engineering, with a strong focus on industry-based research. Anas is an expert adviser to a number of industry organisations and funding bodies nationally and internationally.

Anas was a founding member and past Executive Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities. He has extensive experience in leading multidisciplinary projects nationally and internationally, in particular multidisciplinary research leading to best practice and policy outcomes for integrated water management in the planning of future cities.

Dr Ram Pandit

Dr Ram Pandit is an Environmental Economist and a Graduate Research Coordinator at the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment. He works as an expert on values with The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and recently contributed to its assessments on ‘land degradation and restoration’ and ‘biodiversity and ecosystem services in Asia-Pacific’. His research explores one or more dimensions of sustainability – economic, environmental and social – mainly in Australia and Nepal.

Ram’s research interest/expertise include: valuation of urban environment including greenspace and urban trees, economics of threatened species conservation and management including biodiversity offsets, protected area and tourism, economics of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation in developing countries), economics of pollution, and land degradation and restoration.

Professor Erika Techera

Professor Erika Techera is an international and comparative environmental lawyer with particular emphasis on marine governance in the Indo-Pacific. She has been a consultant on UNEP and FAO projects relating to the environment, fisheries and forestry.

Her research explores the legal frameworks for marine protected areas, marine spatial planning, fisheries, marine pollution and ecotourism, as well as wildlife conservation and management. Much of her research is multidisciplinary, involving both science and social science dimensions. Erika explores the intersection of law and science both in terms of new discoveries requiring law reform and technologies for monitoring and enforcement. She works with social scientists on cultural heritage law and policy, environmental crime and cultural drivers of compliance.

Professor Petra Tschakert

Professor Petra Tschakert is the Centenary Professor in Rural Development in the Department of Geography. Her research focuses on human-environment interactions, drivers of inequality, and environmental justice. She has worked with disadvantaged agricultural communities in the global South to overcome livelihood struggles. Currently, she is the main CI on the ARC-funded discovery project ‘Locating Loss from Climate Change in Everyday Places’, collaborating with residents in urban and rural WA to envision resilient trajectories through the climate crisis.

Professor Tschakert has extensive experience as coordinating lead author (CLA) on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She co-led Chapter 5 (Sustainable Development, Poverty Eradication and Reducing Inequalities) and contributed to the Summary for Policy Makers on the 2018 Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5°C. Prior to that, she played a key role in the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report, co-leading the chapter on Livelihoods and Poverty.