
Fiona is a Senior Scientist specialising in natural resource management and land governance and tenure, participatory land use planning, pastoralism, participatory rangeland management (PRM), gender and conflict resolution and/or transformation. Currently she is based in Rome working closely with IFAD as part of a collaborative agreement. She has spent significant time working in East Africa particularly Ethiopia and Tanzania, as well as short-term assignments and research in other parts of Africa and in Asia. She also works at the global level raising awareness on rangelands amongst global actors and advocating for more attention to be paid to them. This includes participating in preparations for the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, in the call for an International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists (IYRP) and being an active participant and supporter of the Global Landscapes Forum. For several years she coordinated the global Rangelands Initiative of the International Land Coalition, and still plays an active role in this.
Key projects and initiatives that Fiona is currently and/or has been recently involved in include the Sustainable Rangeland Management Project, Tanzania, the Piloting of Participatory Rangeland Management Project in Tanzania and Kenya, and HEAL (One Health for Humans, Environment, Animals and Livelihoods). She also contributes to the Environment Flagship of the Livestock CRP and the Natural Resource Governance and Tenure Flagship of the PIM CRP. Fiona recently led a successful bid to acquire an Inspire Challenge grant from the Big Data Platform to establish a global data platform on rangelands.
Previously Fiona worked for a number of organisations as a consultant and/or employee including SOS Sahel, Ministry of Livestock Ethiopia, Save the Children/USA, CARE, IIED, IDS-University of Sussex, IFAD, ACDI-VOCA, TetraTech and Oxfam/REGLAP. She has a degree in Rural Environmental Studies, and in Environment and Development. Her passion is securing stronger rights to resources and land for pastoralists and raising understanding and support for rangelands globally.
My Publications

Cross-border land use planning in pastoral areas of IGAD: A multi-layered innovation addressing land use conflicts and improving good governance and land productivity
