Jessica Thorn

Jessica Thorn

Jessica’s research interests lie in the fields of agro-bioversity conservation, ecosystem services and function, human livelihoods and climate adaptation in rural and periurban settings. She is supervised by Prof. Kathy Willis (Kew), Dr. Thomas Thornton (Environmental Change Institute, Oxford) and Dr. Ariella Helfgott (Wageningen). Her current research for the CGIAR Climate Change Agriculture and Food Security programme since 2012 involves conducting farmer exchanges in the Farms of the Future Programme (Nepal, 2012), training agricultural extension workers and farmers in Northern Ghana (2013/4) and facilitating scenario planning in South Asia (Nepal, 2013). She is also a lead reviewer for a systematic map  for the Centre for International Forestry Research.

Before commencing her doctoral training, she conducted research for the UN International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, worked as a research assistant for the London School of Economics, Brown University, the University of Cape Town, and the International Labour Research and Information Group and consulted to the South African Department of Social Development. Between 2009-10 she was employed as project officer for an alliance of conservation organisations, including Conservation International and WWF, called the Climate Action Partnership. Jessica has taught undergraduate courses in Field Ecology, Global Challenges for the 21st Century, and Cities of the South.

Her background is in Environmental Change and Management (MSc, School of Geography and Environment, Oxford, 2010-2011), Human Geography (Hons, UCT, 2007- 2008) and Environmental and Geographical Science and Psychology (BSocSci, UCT, 2004-2007) – made possible through the support of the Climate and Development Knowledge Network and the National Research Foundation South Africa. 

Selected Publications

Jessica PR Thorn, Thomas F Thornton, Ariella Helfgott, Kathy J Willis, Indigenous uses of wild and tended plant biodiversity maintain ecosystem services in agricultural landscapes of the Terai Plains of Nepal, Journal of ethnobiology and ethnomedicine, 16 2020. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13002-020-00382-4

Jessica PR Thorn, Thomas F Thornton, Ariella Helfgott, Kathy J Willis, The role of biodiversity in the maintenance of ecosystem services in human-dominated landscapes: Evidence from the Terai Plains of Nepal, The Routledge Handbook of Indigenous Environmental Knowledge 2020.

Jessica P. R. Thorn, Rachel Friedman, David Benz, Kathy J. Willis & Gillian Petrokofsky, What evidence exists for the effectiveness of on-farm conservation land management strategies for preserving ecosystem services in developing countries? A systematic map, Environmental Evidence 5(13) 2016. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13750-016-0064-9

Thorn, J., Snaddon, J., Kok, K., Waldron, A., Zhou, W., Bhagwat, S., Willis, K., and Petrokofsky, G. (2015). “How effective are on-farm conservation land management strategies for preserving ecosystem services in developing countries? A systematic map protocol.” Journal of Environmental Evidence. 4(11):1-12.