I was trained as an ecologist/conservation biologist but have since moved into the field of land system science which is the study of drivers, processes and mechanisms of land-use and land-cover change, specifically in tropical developing countries. I am deeply interested in the linkages and feedbacks among socio-political, economic and ecological systems, and apply a combination of socioeconomic surveys, geospatial analysis, and simulation modeling in my research to investigate socio-ecological systems. My focus is on the conservation and development challenges faced in the context of commercial and small-scale agricultural expansion in the tropics.
I study how people and policies affect land uses in the tropics and how changes in land use affect biodiversity, ecosystems and people.
Lee JSH, Koh LP, Wilcove D. 2016. Junking Tropical Forest for Junk Foods? Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 14 (7), p355-356.
I was inspired by a talk by land system scientists Prof. Eric Lambin about global looming land scarcity and Prof. Ruth DeFries about the lack of nutritional diversity in our food systems and it got me thinking about nutritional outputs from deforested lands.
Lee JSH*, Jaafar Z*, Tan AKJ, Carrasco LR, Ewing JJ, Bickford DP, Webb EL, Koh LP. 2016. Towards Clearer Skies: Challenges in Regulating Transboundary Haze in Southeast Asia. Environmental Science and Policy, 5 (1), p87-95.
*Shared first co-authorship
The first time I was involved in one-one discussions with the Singaporean government agencies about the haze and the publication was an output of a feedback form regarding Singapore’s proposal to develop the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act.
Lee JSH, Rist L, Obidzinski K, Ghazoul J, Koh LP. 2011. No farmer left behind in sustainable biofuel production. Biological Conservation, 144, p2512-2516.
My first significant publication in my PhD, the process of writing this forced me to moved out of my discipline.
- Identifying and Mitigating Deforesattion Risks in Agricultural Commodity Supply Chains
- Dam construction in hazard-prone regions in Southeast Asia
- The role of community participation in Indonesia’s peatland restoration
- Data analytics for land system science
Be kind to yourself, be humble, focus on quality than quantity
GOAL 12: RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND PRODUCTION – Responsible Production and Consumption. | |
GOAL 13: CLIMATE ACTION – Climate change is a global challenge that affects everyone, everywhere. | |
GOAL 15: LIFE ON LAND – Sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss. |