Mahmood Soofi

I am interested in understanding the link between human behavior and well-being in conservation conflicts. Which usually appear in the form of clashes between illegal resource users and law enforcement agents (e.g., protected area rangers) and or human-wildlife conflicts. Much of my research centers on quantifying the scale of the unlawful harvest of wildlife (poaching) as well as designing monitoring techniques (e.g., with a focus on large carnivores and their wild prey) and evaluating conservation interventions to improve their effectiveness in protected areas. I am also increasingly interested in understanding the perceptions and attitudes of people in the context of conservation conflicts to improve their co-existence with wildlife and de-escalate or transform conflicts. I am also interested in collecting and analyzing evidence-based data, and I draw on disciplines such as social, psychology, and ecology to strengthen levels of understanding concerning what drives people in unlawful resource extraction, and planning for effective, sustainable, and socially just conservation.