Michelle Anagnostou

University of Waterloo | UWaterloo · Department of Geography and Environmental Management (Environment)

Wildlife crime in protected areas remains a major challenge to conservation. However, little is known about the role of local communities in providing information on illegal activities to help improve law enforcement efforts in protected areas. As an initial exploration of this complex topic, we aimed to understand the perceptions of law enforcemen...

The intensified illegal trade of wildlife has contributed to the unsustainable decline of wildlife populations, the de-stabilization of ecosystems, and threatens economic development and human security. Though often lacking empirical evidence, convergence theory has emerged recently as a topic of interest among researchers, practitioners, and the m...

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global recession and mass unemployment. Through reductions in trade and international tourism, the pandemic has particularly affected rural economies of tropical low- and middle-income countries where biodiversity is concentrated. As this adversity is exacerbating poverty in these regions, it is important to exami...

The global illegal wildlife trade has been anecdotally linked to other serious crimes, such as fraud, corruption, and money laundering, as well as the cross-border trafficking of drugs, arms, counterfeit goods, and persons. As research on this topic is scarce and sporadic, we conducted a scoping literature review to gather information across multip...

Protecting wildlife and other natural resources requires engaging and empowering local communities, ensuring compliance with rules, and ongoing monitoring and research. At the frontline of these efforts are rangers. Despite their critical role in maintaining the integrity of parks and protected areas, rangers across the world are exposed to precari...

Implementing community-based approaches to countering illegal wildlife trade is important to not only improve the effectiveness of strategies to protect wildlife, but also to promote equity and justice. We conducted an international exploratory review of interventions that aim to address the illegal trade in wildlife using a variety of community-ba...

Small-scale fisheries (SSF) are important social-ecological systems across all parts of the world. Strongly anchored in local communities, SSFs reflect a way of life, and they provide critical contributions. Yet, their efforts and their existence are often overlooked as many SSF communities remain economically and politically marginalized, are high...

Managed retreat is gaining considerable attention as a component of flood risk reduction, climate change adaptation, and community resilience-building in Canada and other countries. However, supportive government policies and programs, on-the-ground assistance for homeowners, and connections to wider community planning processes are needed for such...

This rapid scoping review of existing evidence and research gaps addressed the following question: what research evidence exists and what are the research gaps at global, regional, and national levels on interventions to protect jobs, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and formal/informal sector workers in socioeconomic response to the coronaviru...