Dr James Borrell is a conservation biologist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, where he leads a conservation science research group. His work focuses on the trade-offs between biodiversity and agriculture, asking how we can produce the food we need at the least cost to nature.
James’s research combines extensive fieldwork with a broad analytical toolkit. His team runs landscape-scale surveys of farms, forests and grasslands, and combines these with genomics, spatial modelling and satellite data. A growing focus is rigorous evaluation of what works in conservation.
Borrowing quasi-experimental methods from economics, his team compares places and communities that received an intervention with carefully matched counterparts that did not. They have used this to test whether protected areas benefit both biodiversity and local food security, and whether direct payments to farmers offer a cost-effective, fairer way to encourage biodiversity-positive practices. Much of this work takes place in the Ethiopian Highlands and Madagascar, where James has worked with local colleagues and farming communities for more than a decade.
James’s path into science began on expeditions, and he has since worked from the Arctic to deserts and rainforests, including Lapland, Oman, Botswana, Borneo, Peru and Guinea. He supervises PhD students in Ethiopia, the UK and beyond, including through Kew’s Global PhD Programme.
A long-standing supporter of Explore, James believes passionately in adventure with purpose, and in student expeditions as a training ground for future field researchers and conservationists.
