Alicia May Donnellan Barraclough

Alicia Donnellan is a researcher associated to the University of Bergen UNESCO Chair. Her work focuses on the power of territorrial sustainability designations to catalyze collaboration for sustainability objectives. An example of these are UNESCO Biosphere Reserves, which she studies as social-ecological systems which are testing sites for sustainability and earth stewardship.

She is trained as a terrestrial ecologist, and now works as a sustainability scientisct at the intersection between the natural and social sciences, interested in progressing inter- and transdisciplinary research which is fair and equitable for people and land. Her work is informed by resilience and complex adaptive system thinking, which provide the backdrop for investigating examples of biosphere stewardship across the globe. Her research areas include ecosystem services and social-ecological networks, land-use change, biodiversity conservation, climate change resiliece, adaptive co-management implementation, and sustainable development goal (SDG) implementation. She also has a strong interest in group process work, young stakeholder concerns and political ecology. She was named spokesperson for UNESCO's Man and Biosphere (MAB) programme's 50th anniversary by Dr. Jane Goodall in 2021. 

She holds a PhD in Applied Environmental Science from Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand (2014-2018). Additional to an academic background she has worked across the globe in the non-profit sector and in grassroots organizations. These experiences have given her rich understanding of the importance of connecting diverse fields if we are to rise to the challenges and opportunities presented by the Anthropocene.