Shauna-Lee Chai, Post Graduate Student
Contact:
- Email: schai@cantab.net
Education:
2007 - 2010
PhD candidate, Gates Scholar. Thesis entitled: Park effectiveness, forest clearance and the value of secondary re-growth in a Jamaican protected area.
2002 - 2003
MSc (Distinction) Natural Resource Management, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica. Thesis entitled: The invasive white-tailed deer in Portland Jamaica - distribution, numbers and socioeconomic impacts.
1999 - 2002
BSc (First Class Hons.) Zoology and Botany, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.
Research interests:
Assessing protected area effectiveness at reducing deforestation rates, and examining patterns of deforestation within tropical forest protected areas. I am also interested in secondary forests that re-grow on abandoned agricultural lands, and how land use legacies manifest themselves in forest ecosystems today.
Publications:
Chai, S. and Tanner, E. 150-year legacy of land use on tree species composition in old-secondary forests of Jamaica. Journal of Ecology, no. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2745.2010.01742.x
Chai, S. and Tanner, E. (2010) Are we losing the best parts of our protected areas on tropical mountains? Biotropica (in press).
Chai, S., Tanner, E. and McLaren, K. (2009) High rates of forest clearance and fragmentation pre- and post-national park establishment: The case of a Jamaican montane rainforest. Biological Conservation, 142, 2484-2492.
Otuokon, S., Chai, S.-L. (2009) Building Capacity and Resilience to Adapt to Change The Case of the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park, Global Change and Caribbean Vulnerability: Environment, Economy and Society at Risk (eds. McGregor, D., Dodman, D., Barker, D.) pp. 165-193.University of the West Indies Press, Jamaica.
Otuokon, S. and Chai, S. (2005) Blue & John Crow Mountains National Park Management Plan 2005-2010. Jamaica Conservation & Development Trust.