Research student
Murray's PhD is on the quantification and valuation of forest carbon and forest biodiversity. The research draws on both the social and natural sciences and is funded by the NERC-ESRC. He is hosted at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Zoological Society of London.
Murray is supervised by Susana Mourato, Marcus Rowcliffe and Chris Carbone.
Background
Murray studied for a BSc in Anthropology and Geography at University College London and La Sorbonne (Paris V, Rene Déscartes; 'Mention Excellent'). He has an MSc from Imperial College London in Conservation Science (Distinction).
Murray has most recently worked on the economics team of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment|, and for the Grantham Research Institute, producing the 3rd GLOBE review of climate change legislation|.
Prior to PhD research, he worked for the government of Gabon, undertaking research on forest carbon stocks, to help the country build its position in UNFCCC discussions over a potential international REDD+ mechanism. He has also worked in Indonesia, as a field researcher, placing camera traps for National Geographic. In addition, Murray made a natural history mystery film| with Banyak Productions about a primate said to live in the mountain rainforests of Sumatra.
Research programmes
Research interests
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Quantification and valuation of ecosystem services;
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Payments for ecosystem services;
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Institutional aspects of environmental policy implementation;
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Tropical forests, carbon emissions and biodiversity conservation;
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Remote sensing of the environment.
Media articles
2012
What's Redd and will it help tackle climate change?
|Murray Collins and Naomi Hicks, The Guardian, 19 December
2011
Book Review: 'Nuclear Energy: what everyone needs to know'|
Murray Collins, British Politics and Policy at LSE (blog), 4 December
Research articles
2013
Townshend, T., Fankhauser, S., Aybar, R., Collins, M., Landesman, T., Nachmany, M., and Pavese, C. April 2013. How national legislation can help to solve climate change. Nature Climate Change, v.3, pp.430-432. External link to full article|
2011
Collins, M.B., Milner-Gulland, E.J., Macdonald, E.A. and Macdonald, D.W. 2011. Pleiotropy and charisma determine winners and losers in the REDD+ game: all biodiversity is not equal. Tropical Conservation Science v.4. External link to full article (once available)|
Mitchard, E. T. A., Saatchi, S. S., White, L. J. T., Abernethy, K. A., Jeffery, K. J., Lewis, S. L., Collins, M., Lefsky, M. A., Leal, M. E., Woodhouse, I. H., and Meir, P. October 2011. Mapping tropical forest biomass with radar and spaceborne LiDAR: overcoming problems of high biomass and persistent cloud. Biogeosciences Discuss, v.8, pp.8781-8815. External link to full article |
Collins, M., Macdonald, E.A., Clayton, L., Dunggio, I., Macdonald, D.W. and Milner-Gulland, E.J. October 2011. Wildlife conservation and reduced emissions from deforestation in a case study of Nantu Wildlife Reserve, Sulawesi: 2 An institutional framework for REDD+ implementation. Environmental Science and Policy, v.14. External link to full article|
Macdonald, E.A., Collins, M., Johnson., P.J., Clayton, L., Malhi, Y., Fisher, J.B., Milner-Gulland, E.J., and Macdonald, D.W. October 2011. Wildlife conservation and reduced emissions from deforestation in a case study of Nantu National Park, Sulawesi: 1. The effectiveness of forest protection—many measures, one goal. Environmental Science and Policy. External link to full article|
2010
White, L., Jeffery, K., Collins, M., Lewis, S., Dimoto, E., Dibakou, J., and Mbouni, A. Rapport pour le Projet : ECOFAC Évaluation de l'Impact du Changement Climatique au Gabon: Inventaire statistique du carbone contenu dans la biomasse au-dessus du sol, Parc National de la Lopé. Report to Gabonese government.
Mourato, S., Atkinson, G., Collins, M., Gibbons, S., MacKerron, G., and Resende, G. 2010. Economic assessment of ecosystem related UK cultural services. Report to the Economics team of the UK National Ecosystem Assessment, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).
Policy articles
2013
GLOBE International. January 2013. Climate Legislation Study: a review of climate change legislation in 33 countries (Terry Townshend, Sam Fankhauser, Rafael Aybar, Murray Collins, Tucker Landesman, Michal Nachmany and Carolina Pavese [Eds.]), third Edition. External link to full report|
2011
Collins, M. (contributing author), et al. June 2011. Chapter 22: Economic values from ecosystems. The UK National Ecosystem Assessment. Download PDF of document|
Contact details