DrShane Mc Guinness
Lecturer / Assistant Professor
School of Geography
Orcid identifier0000-0002-6738-282X (opens in a new tab)
- Lecturer / Assistant ProfessorSchool of Geography
- 01 716 8605
- University College Dublin, School of Geography, Newman Building Belfield Dublin 4
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests span a broad range of applied conservation biology topics, including human-wildlife interactions, biodiversity policy and legislation, the geospatial components of interactions and the use of social science techniques to better elicit value of nature and perceptions of conflict.
At present, I am Deputy Coordinator of the WaterLANDS project, a multi-million euro, 5-year project seeking to upscale the restoration of wetlands across Europe, by co-created novel best practice across the four key pillar of:
1) Restoring Services (ecology)
2) Engaging Communities (stakeholders)
3) Aligning governance (Policy)
4) Mobilising Finance (catalysing blended funding)
Concurrently, I am also a Director and Founder of Peatland Finance Ireland CLG, a not-for-profit vehicle aimed at designing blended finance to support expanded peatland restoration in Ireland. This will provide demonstrators of "investible propositions" at test case sites across forestry, energy, agriculture and water, facilitating the entry of a variety of investors (State, philanthropic, concessions finance, grant, etc.). This is then supported by the ongoing development of a monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system, akin to an Irish Peatland Code.
In the recent past, I have also investigated the National Biodiversity Action Plan from several key areas;
1) the resources required by state, semi-state and private actors to reach the targets in the Plan
2) the capacity gap (financial, staffing, remit) at present and whether synergies and co-benefits can be found
3) sourcing of novel financial streams to improve our ability to meet these targets and create a more resilient financial basis for protection.
This project has been largely based on the Biodiversity Finance (BIOFIN) model of the United Nations Development Programme. Ireland is the first developed nation to attempt such an assessment.
Prior to this, I have worked in rural Rwanda, assessing interactions between endangered megafauna (mountain gorilla, forest elephant, etc.) and subsistence farmers, in Ireland developing sensitivity maps for bird conservation and wind energy infrastructure, and in the French Pyrenees assessing transmission of amphibian fungal infection across post-glacial lakes.
At present, I am Deputy Coordinator of the WaterLANDS project, a multi-million euro, 5-year project seeking to upscale the restoration of wetlands across Europe, by co-created novel best practice across the four key pillar of:
1) Restoring Services (ecology)
2) Engaging Communities (stakeholders)
3) Aligning governance (Policy)
4) Mobilising Finance (catalysing blended funding)
Concurrently, I am also a Director and Founder of Peatland Finance Ireland CLG, a not-for-profit vehicle aimed at designing blended finance to support expanded peatland restoration in Ireland. This will provide demonstrators of "investible propositions" at test case sites across forestry, energy, agriculture and water, facilitating the entry of a variety of investors (State, philanthropic, concessions finance, grant, etc.). This is then supported by the ongoing development of a monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system, akin to an Irish Peatland Code.
In the recent past, I have also investigated the National Biodiversity Action Plan from several key areas;
1) the resources required by state, semi-state and private actors to reach the targets in the Plan
2) the capacity gap (financial, staffing, remit) at present and whether synergies and co-benefits can be found
3) sourcing of novel financial streams to improve our ability to meet these targets and create a more resilient financial basis for protection.
This project has been largely based on the Biodiversity Finance (BIOFIN) model of the United Nations Development Programme. Ireland is the first developed nation to attempt such an assessment.
Prior to this, I have worked in rural Rwanda, assessing interactions between endangered megafauna (mountain gorilla, forest elephant, etc.) and subsistence farmers, in Ireland developing sensitivity maps for bird conservation and wind energy infrastructure, and in the French Pyrenees assessing transmission of amphibian fungal infection across post-glacial lakes.