People

Originally from Melbourne, Jacqui is a post-doctoral research fellow with the CoE for Coral Reef Studies and WorldFish. Previously, Jacqui studied sociology at the Australian National University (2012), and an MPhil in Environment, Society and Development at the University of Cambridge (2014). During her MPhil she studied the role of identity in an artisanal oyster fishery in The Gambia, which inspired her to pursue a PhD in environmental social science at James Cook University (2019). Under the supervision of Joshua Cinner, Christina Hicks, and Georgina Gurney, her project investigated the multiple values of ecosystem services and environmental justice in coastal communities in Papua New Guinea. Her current research examines issues of justice and climate change resilience in small-scale fisheries and coastal communities in the Pacific.

Research profile

Selected Publications

Google scholar

Lau, J. 2020. Three Lessons for Gender Equity in Biodiversity Conservation. Conservation Biology (in press)

Cinner, J., Lau, J., et al. 2020. Sixteen years of social and ecological dynamics reveal challenges and opportunities for adaptive management in sustaining the commons. PNAS. 116 (52), 26474-26483

Lau, J., Cinner, J., Fabinyi, M., Gurney, G. & Hicks, C. 2020. Access to Marine Ecosystem Services: Examining Entanglement and Legitimacy in Customary Institutions. World Development. 126: 104730

Lau, J., Hicks, C., Gurney., G & Cinner, J. 2019. What matters to whom and why? Understanding the importance of coastal ecosystem services in developing coastal communities. Ecosystem Services 35:219-230

Lau, J., Hicks, C., Gurney., G & Cinner, J. 2018. Disaggregating ecosystem service values and priorities by wealth, age, and education. Ecosystem Services 28:91-98

Cinner, J., Adger, W., Allison, E., Barnes, M., Brown, K., Cohen, P., Gelcich, S., Hicks, C., Hughes, T., Lau, J., Marshall, N. & Morrison, T. 2018. Building adaptive capacity to climate change in tropical coastal communities. Nature Climate Change 8:117-123

Lau, J. & Scales, I. 2016. Identity, subjectivity and natural resource use: How ethnicity, gender and class intersect to influence mangrove oyster harvesting in The Gambia. Geoforum 69 (1):136-146