Kathleen Buckingham

Research Manager, Global Restoration Initiative

Bio

Kathleen is a Research Manager for the Global Restoration Initiative in the Forests Program. Her research focuses on developing diagnostic tools to assist stakeholders to plan and implement successful forest and landscape restoration.

Prior to joining WRI, Kathleen lived in China where she worked for various organizations including the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR) and Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO). She has also worked in Kuwait, South Korea, Malaysia and India.

Kathleen holds a DPhil in Geography and the Environment (PhD) from the University of Oxford, MSc Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh and certificate in Advanced Chinese from Beijing Language and Culture University.

When not working, Kathleen enjoys running with DC Striders, rowing with Capitol PM Rowing club and travelling.

Blog Posts

Social Network Analysis Is Helping Us Regreen Rwanda. It Can Inform Your Environmental Work, Too.
by Kathleen Buckingham, Ornanong Maneerattana and Sabin Ray - September 21, 2018
Social network analysis has been deployed in crisis disciplines like counterterrorism and public health. Using a new WRI guidebook, we applied it to environmental interventions, starting with forest restoration in Rwanda.
How Brazil, Panama and Costa Rica Breathed New Life Into Their Degraded Lands
by Sarah Weber and Kathleen Buckingham - August 03, 2016
While Latin America and the Caribbean have lost an area of land the size of Mexico to deforestation and degradation, all hope is not lost. Restoration success stories from three nations point to a way forward.
Restoring Africa’s Degraded Lands by Improving Farmers’ Rights
by Sarah Weber and Kathleen Buckingham - April 11, 2016
Giving farmers legal rights to land and natural resources has helped improve degraded landscapes in Ethiopia, Niger and Tanzania. In turn, it's also helped boost food security, alleviate poverty and curb climate change.
INSIDER: The Restoration Diagnostic Can Help Bring Commitments into Action on the Ground
by Craig Hanson, Kathleen Buckingham and Sarah Weber - February 23, 2016
Since COP21 in Paris this past December, countries around the globe have committed to bring more than 85 million hectares of degraded land into restoration by 2020. In Latin America and the Caribbean, nearly 28 million hectares have been...
Crisis Response: When Trees Stop Storms and Deserts in Asia
by Kathleen Buckingham - February 23, 2016
A history of deforestation has made Vietnam, China and South Korea especially vulnerable to coastal storms, floods and sandstorms. In the face of these crises, all three nations are pursuing the same solution&mdashrestoring degraded landscapes.
What Are the Environmental Costs of Valentine’s Day Flowers?
by Kathleen Buckingham - February 09, 2016
The cut-flower industry takes a heavy toll on the land, water and climate. Researcher Kathleen Buckingham explains.
Forest Landscape Restoration Is More than Planting Trees: 3 Case Studies from the Western US
by Kathleen Buckingham and Aaron Reuben - July 09, 2015
Three short stories of landscape restoration in the western United States show that restoration can mean a lot more than just planting trees. Sometimes it means cutting trees, setting fires, and unleashing destructive rodents. Perhaps we'd better explain.
Clear Waters: Restoring Fish, Culture and Land in Central Oregon
by Kathleen Buckingham and Aaron Reuben (IUCN) - June 25, 2015
Salmon populations plummeted over the past several decades in central Oregon’s John Day River. The fish’s return is not just an environmental restoration success story, but a cultural one.
Rebranding Bamboo for Bonn: The 5 Million Hectare Restoration Pledge
by Kathleen Buckingham - December 23, 2014
Last month, 40 nations agreed to restore 5 million hectares (12.4 million acres) of degraded lands and areas of low-quality bamboo production into productive, healthy bamboo forests at the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan’s (INBAR) Ninth Council Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

This pledge will help answer the Bonn Challenge—an effort to pledge to have 150 million hectares (370 million acres) of degraded and deforested lands in restoration programs by 2020—and could create significant environmental and climate benefits, if bamboo can overcome its image problem.
Taking Culture into Account in Restoring China’s Loess Plateau
by Kathleen Buckingham, Lars Laestadius, Aurelio Padovezi (TNC) and Phil Covell (Forest Trends) - December 15, 2014
The restoration of China's Loess Plateau is unmatched in scale, yet the allure of non-native species to engineer a desired outcome in the landscape is common globally.

With changing climate and increasing populations, we need to restore landscapes to ensure the resilience of ecosystem services in the 21st century recognizing that cultural diversity is as important as biodiversity in restoration decisions.

External Publications

Buckingham, Kathleen. "When is a forest a forest? Forest concepts and definitions in the era of forest and landscape restoration." Ambio 45 (2016): 538-550. doi:10.1007/s13280-016-0772-y.

Buckingham, Kathleen. "The Legitimacy of Bamboo Certification: Unpacking the Controversy and the Implications for a “Treelike” Grass." Society & Natural Resources 28 (2015): 575-592. doi:10.1080/08941920.2014.945057.

Buckingham, Kathleen. "Vegetal politics: belonging, practices and places." Social & Cultural Geography 15 (2014): 861-870. doi:10.1080/14649365.2014.973900.

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Kathleen Buckingham

Social Network Analysis Is Helping Us Regreen Rwanda. It Can Inform Your Environmental Work, Too.

How Brazil, Panama and Costa Rica Breathed New Life Into Their Degraded Lands

Restoring Africa’s Degraded Lands by Improving Farmers’ Rights

INSIDER: The Restoration Diagnostic Can Help Bring Commitments into Action on the Ground

Crisis Response: When Trees Stop Storms and Deserts in Asia

What Are the Environmental Costs of Valentine’s Day Flowers?

Forest Landscape Restoration Is More than Planting Trees: 3 Case Studies from the Western US

Clear Waters: Restoring Fish, Culture and Land in Central Oregon

Rebranding Bamboo for Bonn: The 5 Million Hectare Restoration Pledge

Taking Culture into Account in Restoring China’s Loess Plateau

Mapping Social Landscapes: A Guide to Identifying the Networks, Priorities, and Values of Restoration Actors

The Restoration Diagnostic

A Method for Developing Forest Landscape Restoration Strategies by Rapidly Assessing the status of Key Success Factors

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A Method for Developing Forest Landscape Restoration Strategies by Rapidly Assessing the status of Key Success Factors

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