Derric Pennington

I lead and collaborate with a team of experts in ecology, economics and policy that includes both academics and practitioners with a focus on applied research to help improve our understanding of when, where, and how conservation can benefit both biodiversity and people in the context of real-world policy decisions. Moreover, my efforts are both directly informed by and seek to inform World Wildlife Fund along with its powerful global network of external partners in the private, finance, and public sectors to better communicate and improve the uptake of scientific evidence to help solve pressing sustainability challenges.

Specifically, my research interests include evaluating the tradeoffs of land-use change on biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and human well-being and how this information can be best integrated into public and private policy decisions. My work has focused primarily on the US, but also Central America, South America, Southeast Asia, and across spatial scales from local to global. For example, at a watershed-scale I’m co-leading a collaborative research project between WWF, TNC, The Coca-Cola Company, DuPont Pioneer, and University of Minnesota in the Mississippi Basin to integrate innovative decision-science tools with regional and local efforts by farmer organizations, environmental groups, and state and local watershed partnerships to achieve the goals of the 2008 Gulf Hypoxia Taskforce action plan and respective state nutrient and water loss reduction plans. Globally, I am leading a collaborative research initiative to assess the potential costs and benefits of using voluntary sustainability standards, such as certification in collaboration schemes, to reduce the environmental footprint of agriculture. This work also includes several collaborators including multiple WWF offices, ISEAL Alliance, Bonsucro, World Bank- International Finance Corp, Eco-Business Fund and Rainforest Alliance. My work has been published in a variety of academic journals and other outlets, including those focused on conservation, ecology, economics and interdisciplinary topics, and I am currently serving on the editorial board of the journal Ecological Applications.