Thais Morcatty

I joined the UCL Department of Geography in 2023 as a Lecturer in Environmental Futures. My research explores environmental governance, sustainability, and people-centred conservation, particularly in the Global South. My work combines elements of human and physical geography to explore complex socio-cultural, religious, and political drivers of wildlife exploitation and trade, including how ethnicity, taboos, and political movements influence wildlife demand.

Additionally, I investigate zoonotic disease risks associated with wildlife use and the adaptation strategies to climate change impacts on tropical biodiversity, Indigenous peoples and local communities, developing evidence-based solutions for sustainable development and biodiversity protection in rapidly changing ecosystems.

In my research, I aim to integrate Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) into conservation policies, empowering Indigenous people and local communities by incorporating their knowledge and practices into governance frameworks.

More about Dr Morcatty

My academic journey has been shaped by a lifelong passion for exploring the complex interactions between humans and nature. My education began at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, in my home country of Brazil, where I earned a BSc in Biological Sciences in 2013.

From 2013-2016, I worked as a Lead Researcher at the Mamirauá Sustainable Development Institute managing a participatory conservation programme in the Brazilian Amazon. This initiative advanced sustainable governance through hunting agreements and biodiversity monitoring, directly improving the livelihoods of Indigenous and riverine communities.

In 2018, I completed an MSc in Ecology at the National Institute for Amazonian Research, where I examined the sustainability of hunting and trading endangered freshwater turtles. I earned my PhD in Geography and Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University in 2022, where I developed a multidisciplinary thesis incorporating elements of Human Geography, Conservation Biology, Ecology, Economics, Social Sciences, and Criminology to investigate the societal drivers of wildlife trade in Latin America.

I received funding from prestigious institutions such as the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Wildlife Conservation Network (WCN), and the British Federation of Women Graduates (BFWG). During my PhD course at Oxford Brookes and immediately afterwards, I acted for three years as an Associate Lecturer, teaching on modules related to biodiversity conservation at undergraduate and master’s levels.

Following my PhD, I was awarded a Research Excellence Award at Oxford Brookes to lead a postdoctoral project exploring zoonotic disease risks from wildlife markets in Amazonia and Southeast Asia. In 2023, I joined the UCL Department of Geography as a Lecturer in Environmental Futures.

Beyond academia, I have worked for and collaborated extensively with Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and International Governmental Organisations (IGOs). For instance, I undertook a series of consultancies for the Wildlife Conservation Society (both in Brazil and the USA) between 2017 and 2022. These included developing and implementing a long-term environmental education plan to engage local communities in wildlife monitoring, protection, and management in protected areas, analysing the drivers and market dynamics of wildlife trade to develop strategies for reducing the illegal trade in species such as jaguars and matamata turtles, and designing an Inter-Institutional Collaboration Strategy to Combat Wildlife Trafficking in the Amazon through a review of legal frameworks and institutional roles to identify gaps and foster collaboration among law enforcement agencies.

Between 2021 and 2022, I also worked as a consultant for the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF) in projects focused on alternative livelihoods and reducing wild meat consumption in Latin America, with a particular emphasis on behavioural change strategies.

I am currently a guest editor for the journal Conservation Biology and an associate editor of the journals Scientific Reports and Ethnobiology and Conservation.

Teaching

I teach on the following modules:

Arts and Sciences BASc

• BASc Final Year Dissertation (BASC0024)

Geography

• Understanding our Planet (GEOG0005)
• Thinking Geographically II (GEOG0012)
• Ecological Patterns and Processes (GEOG0020)
• Environment and Society (GEOG0022)
• Dissertation (GEOG0037)
• Mitigation and Adaptation to Environmental Change (GEOG0044)
• Conservation and Environmental Management (GEOG0093)
• Research Dissertation (GEOG0103)
• Research Project and Dissertation (GEOG0105)
• Tropical Futures (GEOG0159)
• Governing Environmental Crisis (GEOG0181)

Publications

To view Dr Morcatty's publications, please visit UCL Profiles:

Publications

Research Interests

The natural world is under immense pressure, with biodiversity rapidly declining, ecosystems degrading, and climate change intensifying its effects, particularly in tropical regions. My academic research is dedicated to understanding how these crises are interconnected and how they impact wildlife, ecosystems, and especially Indigenous peoples and local communities, particularly in the Global South. I explore the interplay of socio-economic, cultural, and political factors in shaping human-nature relationships.

Specifically:

Sustainability, natural resource use, and food security

I investigate how Indigenous knowledge and local governance frameworks can balance the needs of communities with biodiversity conservation. This includes analysing the influence of ethnicity, urbanisation, religion, and cultural taboos on resource management, and how these factors can support sustainable practices.

Wildlife use and trade

My work examines the socio-economic and political drivers of wildlife exploration trade, from consumption and market demands to enforcement gaps. I have analysed how political movements, such as changes in governance or policies, impact illegal and legal wildlife markets. This line of research also includes the effects of factors such as urbanisation, foreign investment and new technologies in changing demand for wildlife products tropical regions.

OneHealth and zoonotic diseases

I use the OneHealth approach to investigate how wildlife use and climate change affect zoonotic disease risks. My research has identified patterns and hotspots of transmission risk for diseases related to wildlife use, such as psittacosis and leprosy, which can inform public policies. 

My work is deeply committed to decolonizing conservation practices by amplifying voices from the Global South and ensuring equitable solutions that integrate cultural, ecological, and political considerations.

If you are interested in pursuing PhD research in these areas or have innovative ideas related to biodiversity conservation, wildlife use and trade, sustainable development, and environmental governance, I would be delighted to discuss potential collaborations and mentorship.
 

Impact

A key aspect of my work is ensuring that research is translated into actionable, real-world solutions. My research has shaped important national and international conservation efforts. I have served as an advisor to the Special Investigation Group (SIG) Jaguar, providing expertise to South American governments on combating illegal wildlife trade in this species.

I have also had the honour of providing strategic insights to Brazilian governmental bodies as a key player during the WCS Countering Wildlife Trafficking event. My research on environmental education, community involvement in management and monitoring programs, and turtle participatory conservation has contributed to the development of the Monitoring Plan for the Mosaic of Protected Areas of the Lower Rio Negro, Brazil, which is applied to 12 protected areas.

Additionally, I have served as an expert advisor for the IUCN Red List and the Brazilian Red List, focusing on South American tortoises, to assess their threats, conservation status, and priorities for conservation planning.

Public engagement has been also central to amplifying the impact of my work. My research has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, New Scientist and Nature, raising awareness of critical issues such as illegal wildlife trade, zoonotic diseases, and the role of LEK in conservation.
 

Research Students

Current PhD Students

• Aline T. Santos (2023/): Wild meat markets in the Amazon: a spatiotemporal assessment of sales patterns and their socioeconomic, environmental and sanitary links. PhD Wildlife Ecology, Conservation, and Management, Federal University of Minas Gerais (Brazil). Co-Supervisor. 

Completed MSc Students

• Kenta Matsumoto (2022/23): Analysis of the Japanese agricultural biodiversity strategy for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. MSc Environmental Politics and Society, University College London (UK). Supervisor.
• Tomas Abdala Carrillo (2022/23): CPR governance through the lens of public perception: a case study in the Scottish Highlands. MSc Conservation, University College London (UK). Supervisor.
• Tamara Darbar (2022/23): Watch and Learn: The Impacts of Environmental Education on Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviours in Children in Pemba. MSc Conservation, University College London (UK). Supervisor.
• Lisley P. L. N. Gomes (2021/23): Influence of social networks of urban and rural inhabitants on the consumption and trade of wildlife in the Amazon. Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (USA). Co-supervisor.
• Anna Watkins (2020/21): Using pelage characteristics and mitochondrial DNA to investigate diversity in the Bengal Slow Loris (Nycticebus bengalensis). MSc Primate Conservation, Oxford Brookes University (UK). Advisor.
• Meg Barrett (2018/19): Play patterns and functions of play in a venomous mammal. MSc Primate Conservation. MSc Primate Conservation, Oxford Brookes University (UK). Advisor.
• Beth Lewis-Whelan (2018): Why we should be concerned about least concern species: trade and tourism of long-tailed macaques and common palm civets. MSc Primate Conservation, Oxford Brookes University (UK). Advisor.
• Simon B. Knoop (2018): An investigation into primate diversity and livelihoods of the Maraguá people in Central Amazonia, Amazonas, Brazil. MSc Primate Conservation, Oxford Brookes University (UK). Advisor.

Research Grants, Prizes and Awards

• Prizes, Grants and Awards

• 2022: Oxford Brookes University Research Excellence Award (Postdoctoral Fellowship).
• 2022: 2021 Conservation Biology Awards. Most impactful papers of 2021 in the journal Conservation Biology.
• 2020: Main Grant, Funds for Women Graduates, British Federation of Women Graduates.
• 2018: Sydney Byers Scholarship Award, Wildlife Conservation Network.
• 2018: Christensen Conservation Leaders Scholarship Award, Wildlife Conservation Society.
• 2015: Ralf-Yorque Memorial Award, Foundation of Scientific Symbiosis. Most impactful paper of 2015 in the journal Ecology and Society.

Research Projects

• 2024-Current: Understanding the geography of wildlife use in the face of urbanization. US National Science Foundation - Human-Environment and Geographical Sciences Program. Co-I.
• 2024-Current: Leveraging the use of roadkill biobanks toward wildlife pathogen detection through a metagenomics approach. Center for Emerging, Zoonotic, and Arthropod-borne Pathogens (CeZAP) Interdisciplinary Team-building Pilot Grant. Virginia Tech, US.
• 2022: Using social media data to expose illegal hunting and wildlife depletion across Brazil. UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund (UKRI GCRF) TRADE Hub.
• 2022: Sustainable wild meat harvesting in Amazonia: A keystone for nutritional security and ecosystem health. United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
• 2022: Predicting risks of zoonotic disease spillover associated with wildlife markets. Oxford Brookes University Research Excellence Award.
• 2020: Extent and impact of illegal sport hunting in Brazil: Insights from social media data. Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.
• 2019: Research Network on Diversity, Use, and Conservation of Wildlife in Amazonia (RedeFauna). Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
• 2017: Assessing the scale and promoting policy change to curb wildlife trafficking in Latin America. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) Combating Wildlife Trafficking Grant Program.
• 2013: Ecology, conservation, and sustainable use of hunted freshwater turtles and tortoises in Amazonia. Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).