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Dr Brian van Wilgen has three decades of experience as an ecologist in southern Africa, where he has focussed both on research and the application of ecological understanding in environmental management and policy development. As a personal goal, he aims to make, through research and the application of research, a contribution to conservation and environmental security in southern Africa and beyond. His research has been focussed in three main fields – the ecology and management of invasive alien plants; the ecological and atmospheric effects of vegetation fires and the use of fire in ecosystem management; and the conservation of biological diversity. In the field of the ecology and management of invasive alien plants, he has experience in the use of fire in managing invasions, the population dynamics of invasive plants, water use by invasive plants, the biological control of invasive plants, and studies on resource economics. Between 1996 and 2004, he acted as scientific advisor to the Working for Water programme. With regard to the ecology and management of ecosystems using fire, his work has been in largely in fynbos, grassland and savanna ecosystems in South Africa, with additional experience in the USA and Australia. He is author and co-author of over 160 publications, including three books and over 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers. He is currently a member of the Invasive Species Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, and of the World Commission on Protected Areas. Van Wilgen was appointed a CSIR Fellow in January 2005.
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