Dr Hayley Clements

Senior Researcher

Hayley undertakes impact-orientated transdisciplinary research that explores how African biodiversity connects to human well-being, and the role of African wildlife economies in achieving just and sustainable development.

She holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town and has undertaken postdoctoral fellowships at the Universities of Monash (Australia) and Stellenbosch. She was the inaugural recipient of the Jennifer Ward Oppenheimer Research Grant, leading a project that convened 200 African biodiversity experts to co-produce a map of the continent’s remaining biodiversity intactness (BII4AFRICA). This map clearly demonstrates the enormous need for wildlife economies across the continent’s working lands - harnessing wildlife-based land uses to retain biodiversity intactness while supporting resilient livelihoods. Hayley is an editor at the international journal Sustainability Science, on the steering committee for the African Wildlife Economy Community of Practice, and a member of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas, the Society for Conservation Biology, and the Programme on Ecosystem Change and Society.

Hayley is working with AWEI to develop and implement its strategic research programme aimed at unlocking African wildlife economies. She is also a senior researcher at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University. Her ongoing research includes a project assessing at the ecological and socio-economic impacts of sustainable use across Africa, in collaboration with the University of Helsinki. She is also a co-lead researcher on a project “Enabling agroecological systems that sustain people and planet”, developing foundational knowledge products and decision support tools for the wildlife economy to facilitate cross-sectoral mainstreaming.

Recent research:

• Importance of private and communal lands to sustainable conservation of Africa's rhinoceroses, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 2023 (AWEI post here; Conversation article here; Daily Maverick coverage here; Mongabay coverage here)
• Lessons from COVID-19 for wildlife ranching in a changing world, Nature Sustainability 2022 (AWEi post here; Conservation article here; Daily Maverick coverage here; Moneyweb coverage here).
• Consequences of recreational hunting for biodiversity conservation and livelihoods, One Earth 2021 (Conservation article here; interview on 702 radio here)
• Routledge Handbook of Research Methods for Social-Ecological Systems. Taylor and Francis 2021
• Hayley’s full list of research outputs can be viewed on ResearchGate