Douglas Houston is a PhD student at the University of East Anglia as part of the Critical Decade programme, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. His PhD investigates the impact of past agricultural land use on carbon uptake and biodiversity return in regrowing (secondary) forests in western Amazonia. The extent of secondary forests is increasing throughout the tropics, and so their contribution to climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation is being increasingly valued.
Doug recently obtained an MSc in Conservation Biology at the University of Kent. His research project used ecological modelling software to simulate the dispersal of orangutans through a mixed-use landscape of oil palm plantation and tropical forest in western Borneo, to provide data to the industrial and environmental stakeholders that would support their collaborative efforts to conserve local orangutan populations.
Doug’s professional life has so far been in the pharmaceutical industry, supporting NHS patients receive innovative treatments through clinical trials, particularly in oncology. A trip to eastern Indonesia in 2017, inspired by Alfred Russel Wallace’s travelogue The Malay Archipelago, convinced him pursue his passion for the natural world and a career in biodiversity conservation.
