ABOUT ME
Dr Laura Perry
I'm an experienced conservationist, with ten years of practice working in the Human Dimensions of wildlife. I work with organisations both large and small to integrate social science techniques into their conservation practice and strengthen their ability to secure conservation outcomes.
I have particular experience working with communities to develop workable Human Wildlife Conflict mitigation strategies; implement applied behaviour change techniques; and design appropriate monitoring and evaluation approaches for complex social interventions, amongst many others. Typically, I work with community, NGO/BINGO, and government stakeholders to design and implement programmes that lead to long-term improvements for people and wildlife. I have partner organisations around the world, from the USA to Japan, but have particular expertise working in sub-Saharan Africa, having lived in the region for eight years.
I am a founding member of the IUCN SSC CEC Behaviour Change Task Force, and a member of the IUCN SSC Human Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence Specialist Group, and the Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group. I am also an advisor to the Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group and a research associate at Indiana University, USA.
See my CV for further details.
CONSULTANCY SERVICES
Strategic Planning
Understanding organisational goals and directions, and developing strategies through which to achieve those goals.
Behaviour Change
Working with partners to design and implement strategies to change the behaviour of target audiences.
Social Monitoring & Evaluation
Designing appropriate tools for understanding impact, which may include quantitative and/or qualitative measures.
Carbon Credits
Developing community-centric Carbon Credit programs with local partner organizations, particularly using VCS and REDD+ frameworks.
Community Engagement
Engaging audiences and developing long-term strategies for engagement with different relevant audience sectors.
Past Work
The below are select examples of my work, and the types of project I typically engage with. If you are interested in a particular type of support, I recommend contacting me to discuss previous projects which may be relevant to your needs. Please see also my current projects for more details of my ongoing work.
Social Impact Evaluation for REDD+ Carbon Credits project in southern Kenya, including management, analysis, and presentation of all relevant data for complying with gold-standard credits certification process.
Carbon Credits Evaluation
Chyulu Hills, Kenya
Stakeholder analysis training spanning three fully taught days and one field day to practicer the techniques. Focussing on the stakeholders who impact eel conservation across Japan, this training gave the partners the necessary tools to lead their own stakeholder analysis and engagement process.
Eel Stakeholder Workshop
Tokyo, Japan
Design of a socially appropriate mechanism to increase willingness to adopt bear-resistant trash cans on the part of a small, disengaged community in southern Florida. Use of social influencers and a community buy-in strategy to increase uptake from virtually nil to 95% + across the community.
Bear Resistant Trash Cans
Florida, USA
Engagement with Uganda-based outreach and education team to develop qualitative skills, including interviewing, coding and analysing qualitative data. Ongoing support to continue honing the most applicable qualitative skills and support the community research programme.
Social Science Capacity
Kibale, Uganda
Support for long-term visioning exercises for a well-established charity working in Madagascar. Work with different audiences within the organisation to agree upon the most appropriate direction, and help to develop suitable, specific plans for future work.
Strategic Planning
Madagascar
Planning for the implementation of a poisoning reduction campaign in southern Tanzania, making use of health-motivated behaviour and social norms to increase compliance with target behaviours. Development of methodology for assessing the impact of the intervention against baseline.
Vulture Poisoning Behaviour
Lukwati-Piti, Tanzania
Ongoing participation in various components of the BCTF landscape of need evaluation, including interviews with various industry experts to understand the need, challenges, and opportunities for behaviour change across the conservation community.
Needs Assessment
Behaviour Change Task Force
Use of social norms to promote the uptake of conservation-friendly livestock management approaches in southern Kenya. Quasi-experimental approach using vignettes and community influencers to model certain target behaviours, and thereby increase uptake of those behaviours across the wider community.
Livestock Management
East Africa
TESTIMONIALS
