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Thom Meredith

Title: 
Associate Professor
Thom Meredith
Contact Information
Phone: 
(514) 398 - 4219
Email address: 
thomas.meredith [at] mcgill.ca
Research areas: 
Environmental management
Impact assessment
Environmental conflict resolution in Canada
Current research: 

Dr. Meredith's interest is the management of ecological resources, with aparticular focus on environmental impact assessment and community responseto environmental change. He maintains active research on community-basedenvironmental protection strategies that bring both scientific and local or traditionalinformation into environmental decision-making. Current and recent research sitesinclude mountain forest communities in Quebec, British Columbia, Mexico and East Africa.

In 1979 he joined the Department of Geography at ֱ to teach and conduct research in environmental management. He was the founding director of the ֱ'sEnvironmental Studies Program(1981-1998), and the founding director of ֱ’sCanadian Field Study in Africaand theAfrican Field Study Semester(2000-2012). He has lived and worked in Canada, England, Mexico and Kenya.

Research interests

  • Community-based management of environmental and ecological resources
  • Adaptation and innovation in indigenous and traditional land-use systems
  • Biodiversity conservation management
  • Environmental impact assessment ‑‑ public participation and community values
  • Safe and effective experiential environmental field programs learning opportunities
  • Current Projects:
    • Biodiversity conservation and community development in Laikipia, Kenya.
    • Biodiversity conservation and links to resource-based livelihoods in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador.
    • Community involvement in environmental planning in Kibera, Kenya.

Recent Positions Related to Research

  • Founding Director -- Canadian Field Studies in Africa; African Field Study Semester (2002-2012) -- Instructor (2012-present).
  • Instructor and Planning Committee -- Panama Field Study Semester, ֱ (2006-2020)
  • Student Mentor -- MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program, ֱ (2014-2019)
  • Principal Investigator -- ֱ Project on Community Based Environmental Decision Support (CBED) (1996-2008)
  • Past President -- Society for Human Ecology (2000-2001)
  • Charter Member -- Canadian Consortium for Sustainable Development Research
  • Chair, African Studies, ֱ (2007 – 2009)
  • Board Member -- Morgan Arboretum. (1998 – 2006)
  • Past Board Member, Association québécoise pour l'é valuation d'impacts. (2002 – 2004)
  • Co-founder, member of trilateral (three country, six university), North American Consortium for Community-Based Biodiversity Conservation. (1996 – 2000)
  • Founding Director – ֱ Environmental Studies Program. (1981-1998)

Previous Positions Related to Research

  • Board Member, Association québécoise pour l'évaluation d'impacts
  • Co-founder, member of trilateral (three country, six university) , North American Consortium for Community-Based Biodiversity Conservation.
  • Board Member, Fondation du Maire de Montreal pour la Jeunesse.
  • Visiting Researcher, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico.
  • Coordinator, ֱ Project on Sustainability and Development.
  • Executive member, Canadian Association of Geographers.
  • Convener of Panel on Critical Environmental Zones Canadian Global Change Program (Royal Society of Canada).
  • Member, International Geographic Union, Commission on Critical Zones.
  • Founder, past director, present member, Canadian Association of Geographers Impact Assessment Study group.
  • Chair, organizing committee, Society for Human Ecology Conference, Montreal.
  • Consultant on impact assessment. UNEP, Nairobi.
  • Visiting Lecturer, University of Nairobi.
  • Chairman, Organizing Committee for the Second North American Caribou Workshop
  • Member, Canadian Society of Environmental Biologists' Committee for Environmental Impact Assessment.
  • Consultant on land use change and development around Kootenay National Park, B.C.
Degree(s): 
  • Ph.D. 1978, Applied Biology, Cambridge University
  • M.Sc. 1975, Botany and Microbiology, University of London
  • Dipl. in Conservation 1975, Geography/Botany/Zoology, University of London
  • Bach. Environmental Studies (Honours) 1974, Geography, University of Waterloo
Selected publications: 
  • (Since 2010 -- full list available on request.) (Refereed except *)
  • Meredith, T., Blair, A., Burbano, D. (2021). Vulnerabilities in the Conservation–Tourism Alliance: The Impacts of COVID-19 in Laikipia and the Galapagos Islands. Human Ecology Review, 26(1)
  • Meredith, T., MacDonald, M., Kwach, H., Waikuru, E., & Alabaster, G. (2020). Partnerships for Successes in Slum Upgrading: Local Governance and Social Change in Kibera, Nairobi. In Land Issues for Urban Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa (pp. 237-255). Springer, Cham.
  • Burbano, D. V., & Meredith, T. C. (2020). Effects of tourism growth in a UNESCO World Heritage Site: resource-based livelihood diversification in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 1-20.
  • Burbano, D. V., & Meredith, T. C. (2020). Conservation strategies through the lens of small-scale fishers in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador: Perceptions underlying local resistance to marine planning. Society & Natural Resources, 33(10), 1194-1212.
  • Burbano, D. V., Meredith, T. C., & Mulrennan, M. E. (2020). Exclusionary decision-making processes in marine governance: The rezoning plan for the protected areas of the ‘iconic’Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Ocean & Coastal Management, 185, 105066.
  • Meredith, T., and MacDonald, M. (2017). Community-supported slum-upgrading: Innovations from Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya. Habitat International, 60, 1-9.
  • Blair, A. G., and Meredith, T. C. (2017). Community perception of the real impacts of human–wildlife conflict in Laikipia, Kenya: capturing the relative significance of high-frequency, low-severity events. Oryx, 1-11.
  • Ford, J., Maillet, M., Pouliot, V., Meredith, T., Cavanaugh, A., & IHACC Research Team. (2016). Adaptation and Indigenous peoples in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Climatic Change, 139(3-4), 429-443.
  • Meredith, Thomas and Melanie MacDonald. (2014). Kibera Integrated Water Sanitation and Waste Management Project: Progress and Promise: Innovations in Slum Upgrading. United Nations Human Settlements Programme. UNON, Publishing Services Section, Nairobi. 120 pp. (and on line at)
  • Meredith, Thomas. (2011). Review for Canadian Geographer “Environmental Impact Assessment: Practice and Participation” Edited by Kevin S. Hanna, Oxford University Press, Don Mills, Ontario, 2009, xii + 467 p *
  • Meredith, Thomas. (2011). Review for Canadian Geographer: “The Challenge for Africa: A New Vision By Wangari Maathai, William Heinemann, London, 2009, 319 p. paper (ISBN 9780434019816).*
  • Klinsky, Sonja, Renee Seiber, Thom Meredith (2010). Connecting Local to Global: Geographic Information Systems and Ecological Footprints as Tools for Sustainability. Professional Geographer, Vol 62 (1): 84-102. ()
Group: 
Faculty
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