Professor, Rubenstein Sch Env & Nat Res, Director UVM Environmental Program

Dr. Brendan Fisher is Professor at the University of Vermont.  His research and fieldwork lie at the nexus of conservation, development, natural resource economics and human behavior.  He is the author with colleagues of two books, Valuing Ecosystem Services (Earthscan, London, 2008) and A Field Guide to Economics for Conservationists (Roberts and Company, 2015).  Brendan teaches courses on sustainability science, behavioral economics, environmental/ecological economics and ecosystem management.

His field research has been undertaken in Borneo, Cambodia, Colombia, Mozambique, and Tanzania.  He was a Rockefeller Bellagio Fellow working on relationships between the ecological conditions of coastal regions, gender inequality and childhood health.  In 2021-2022, he'll be a Fulbright Fellow in Spain working on changing socio-ecological conditions and ecosystem services in the Spanish Pyrenees. When he’s not working he spends most of his time enjoying the Vermont outdoors with his wife and three children.

Publications

  • Grima, N., Corcoran, W., Hill-James, C., Langton, B., Sommer, H.,Fisher, B. The importance of urban natural areas and urban ecosystem services during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020) Plos one 15 (12), e0243344
  • Naidoo, R., Fisher, B., Reset sustainable development goals for a pandemic world. Nature (2020) 583 (7815), 198-201
  • Byerly, H., D'Amato, A.W., Hagenbuch, S., Fisher, B.  Conservation Science, & Practice. (2019). Social influence and forest habitat conservation: Experimental evidence from Vermont's maple producers. e98.
  • Fisher, B, Marteau, T, & Balmford, A. (2019). Use nudges to change behaviour towards conservation. Nature 569 (7758), 630-630
  • Fisher, B., Herrera, D., Adams, D., Fox, H.E., Gallagher, L., Gerkey, D, . . . Johnson, K.  (2019). Can nature deliver on the sustainable development goals? The Lancet Planetary Health, 3(3), e112-e113.
  • Grima, N., Fisher, B., Ricketts, T. H., & Sonter, L.J.  (2019). Who benefits from ecosystem services? Analysing recreational moose hunting in Vermont, USA. Oryx, 1-9.
  • Huang, G., Zhou, W., Qian, Y., & Fisher, B.  (2019). Breathing the same air? Socioeconomic disparities in PM2. 5 exposure and the potential benefits from air filtration. Science of The Total Environment, 657, 619-626.
  • Jiang, Y., Huang, G., & Fisher, B.  (2019). Air quality, human behavior and urban park visit: A case study in Beijing. Journal of Cleaner Production, 118000.
  • Naidoo, R, Gerkey, D, Hole, D, Pfaff, A, Ellis, AM, Golden, CD, . . . Fisher, B.  (2019). Evaluating the impacts of protected areas on human well-being across the developing world. Science Advances 5(4), eaav3006.

Associations and Affiliations

  • Fellow, Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont
  • Fellow, World Wildlife Fund
  • Fellow, Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE- University of East Anglia)
  • Editorial Board, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
  • Editorial Board, Oryx
  • Editorial Board, PLOS Sustainability and Transformation
smiling brendan fisher, outdoors with fir trees in the background

Areas of Expertise and/or Research

Research: Biodiversity conservation, conservation and human livelihoods, environmental economics, behavioral economics, equity and justice, ecosystem services

Education

  • PhD, Natural Resources, University of Vermont
  • MSc, Environmental Change and Management, Oxford University
  • BSc, Civil Engineering, Bucknell University

CV

PDF icon Brendan Fisher CV 2022(PDF).pdf

Contact

Email:

Brendan.Fisher@uvm.edu

Phone:
  • 802-656-4055
Office Location:

Bittersweet House Room 301

Office Hours:

Contact for appointments

Website(s):
  1. ECOS LAB

Courses Taught

  • ENVS 002 Solutions in Environmental Studies
  • ENVS 188 Sustainability Science
  • ENVS 201 Research Methods

Other Courses:

  • NR 205 Ecosystem Management: Integrating Science, Society and Policy
  • NR 385 Behavioral Economics and Sustainability