Professor Fiona Nunan

Professor Fiona Nunan

International Development Department
Professor of Environment and Development

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0) 121 414 3061
Fax
+44 (0) 121 414 4989
Email
f.s.nunan@bham.ac.uk
Address
International Development Department
School of Government
Muirhead Tower
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston, Birmingham,
B15 2TT, United Kingdom

Fiona's interests and experience focus on natural resource governance and management in developing country settings, particularly within inland fisheries and coastal locations in East and Southern Africa, and on exploring the links between poverty and the environment.

Qualifications

  • PhD (Birmingham)
  • MA (Sussex)
  • BSc (Kent)

Biography

Prof Nunan first joined IDD in 1994, working in the areas of urban waste management, peri-urban natural resource management and poverty-environment linkages. She聽rejoined IDD in September 2008, after spending five years in East Africa, working on two fisheries co-management projects, funded by the UK Department for International Development and the EU. Her research now centres on the arrangements for and practice of governing renewable natural resources in low- and middle-income countries.

Prof Nunan served as Head of Department between 2014 and 2020, and as School Head of Research between Jan 2020 and May 2021. Since January 2020, she has served as the Programme Lead of the University-led .

Her first book was published in 2015 by Routledge, . The book makes an innovative contribution to literature on environment and development by bringing together a diverse range of analytical approaches and frameworks that can be used to study human-nature interactions.

Two edited books followed: and .

She was made a Professor in 2018 and gave her inaugural lecture in January 2020.

Prof Nunan served on the Council of the UK Development Studies Association 2010-2016 and convenes the DSA Study Group on Environment, Natural Resources and Climate Change.

Teaching

My specialist area of interest is environment and natural resource management and governance, and I convene the IDD module on 'Transforming Development for Sustainability'. I also co-convene Making Policy on campus and distance learning and contribute to other modules.

Postgraduate supervision

Prof Nunan welcomes PhD applications in the following areas:

Governance and livelihoods of renewable natural resources in low- and middle-income countries, particularly fisheries co-management.

Research

Professor Nunan's research interests lie in the arrangements for and practice of governance of renewable natural resources in low- and middle-income countries. She particularly uses institutional analysis, but also has interests in how power and gender relations, and the wider political economy, affect the practice and outcomes of natural resource governance.

See Professor Nunan's ORCID for a full list of outputs:聽https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4079-6296

Other activities

Member of the Council of the (DSA) since November 2010

See my IDD blog entries

  • , January 2012
  • '', November 2011

Publications

Highlight publications

Nunan, F (ed.) 2019, . Earthscan Studies in Natural Resource Management, Earthscan.

Nunan, F 2020, '', Global Environmental Change, vol. 63, 102101.

Recent publications

Article

Ferdous, R & Nunan, F 2025, '', World Development, vol. 192, 107043.

Namwira, D, Nunan, F & Beswick, D 2024, '', MAST Maritime Studies, vol. 23, 18.

Nunan, F 2021, '', African Identities, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 342-358.

Nunan, F, Menton, M, McDermott, C, Huxham, M & Schreckenberg, K 2021, '', World Development, vol. 146, 105595.

Schaafsma, M, Eigenbrod, F, Gasparatos, A, Gross-Camp, N, Hutton, C, Nunan, F, Schreckenberg, K & Turner, K 2021, '', Ecological Economics, vol. 187, 107103.

Nunan, F, Cepic, D, Onyango, P, Salehe, M, Yongo, E, Mbilingi, B, Odongkara, K, Mlahagwa, E & Owili, M 2020, '', Journal of Rural Studies.

Nunan, F, Omondi, M, Nchimbi, A, Mangora, M, Kairo, J, Shalli, M & Jiddawi, N 2020, '', Conservation and Society, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 148-160.

Nunan, F & Cepic, D 2019, '', Fisheries Research, vol. 224, 105454.

Nunan, F, Cepi膰, D, Yongo, E, Saleh, M, Mbilingi, B, Odongkara, K, Onyango, P, Mlahagwa, E & Owili, M 2018, '', International Journal of the Commons.

Nunan, F 2018, '', Natural Resources Forum.

Nunan, F, Cepic, D, Mbilingi, B, Odongkara, K, Yongo, E, Owili, M, Salehe, M, Mlahagwa, E & Onyango, P 2017, '', Society and Natural Resources.

Cepic, D & Nunan, F 2017, '', Marine Policy, vol. 86, pp. 104-110.

Chapter

Nunan, F 2017, . in Making climate compatible development happen., Chapter 1, Routledge, pp. 1-21.

Nunan, F & Wanjiru, C 2017, . in Making Climate Compatible Development Happen., Chapter 10, Routledge, pp. 201-222.

Review article

Singh, A, Pope, FD, Radcliffe, J, Luiu, C, Bakare, H, Bartington, SE, Bonsu, NO, Bryson, JR, Cheeseman, N, Flowe, H, Krause, S, Newbigging, K, Nunan, F, Reardon, L, Rogers, CDF, Rowlingson, K & Thomson, I 2024, '', npj Climate Action, vol. 3, 110.

Expertise

Governing natural resources for sustainability and wellbeing

Fiona’s expertise lies in how governance systems mediate linkages between the environment and people and how local people work with government in managing renewable natural resources, such as fisheries and forests, in developing countries.