Biography

Luca Tacconi was trained in Ecological Economics and is an Emeritus Professor of Environmental Governance. His research focuses on the economic, political, and social factors that drive environmental change – resulting in loss of biodiversity and climate change – and their implications for rural livelihoods and poverty. He conducts research on environmental governance, corruption, social and economic aspects of deforestation and climate change.

Emeritus Professor Tacconi serves on the editorial board of the journals Environmental Governance and Policy, and Forest Policy and Economics. He has been a visiting scholar at Yale University, and the University of Copenhagen funded by an European Commission Fellowship on Sustainable Tropical Forestry.

He has held the positions of Associate Dean (Education) and Associate Dean (Research) in the College of Asia and the Pacific, and Director of the Resources, Environment & Development group in the Crawford School. In the latter role he established the Master of Climate Change, together with the Fenner School.

He has worked on research and development activities funded by the Australian Research Council, the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research, the Australian Agency for International Development, the Department for International Development (UK), the European Commission, The World Bank, the United Nations Development Programme, the United States Agency for International Development, the Government of Japan, the South Pacific Regional Environmental Program. He has also collaborated with government and non-government organisations such as the Ministry of Forestry of Indonesia, the Ministry of Forestry of Vanuatu, The Nature Conservancy, Transparency International, and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

Positions prior to his appointment to the ANU include Senior Scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) in Indonesia (2001-2005), Rural Development Adviser with the Australian Agency for International Development (1998-2001), and Economist with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (1996-1998).