Working with natural systems for sustainable futures
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Dr Matt Fortnam

Dr Matt Fortnam

Senior Research Fellow

 M.Fortnam@exeter.ac.uk

 Environment and Sustainability Institute 

 

Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK

Overview

Matt is an interdisciplinary social scientist with an interest in applying social-ecological and resilience thinking to diverse research fields and policy domains, including climate change, marine management and humanitarian and development policy. His commitment to co-producing knowledge with practitioners has been intrinsic to his undertaking of frontier research that addresses global challenges.

Matt joined University of Exeter in 2016, following the completion of his PhD at University College London. He has previously worked for the United Nations Environment Programme and provided technical advice through consultancies for diverse international environmental, development and humanitarian organisations, including FAO, UNICEF, FCDO, Care International, and WWF.

Matt is currently a Researcher Co-I on the SMMR Resilience of Coastal Communities project at Exeter and consulting for the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and Centre for Humanitarian Change.

Much of his research has been focused on East Africa, Southeast Asia and, more recently, the UK.

Qualifications

University College London, UK (2012-2016)
PhD in Resilience, Environment and Development

University College London, UK (2010-2011)
Environment, Science and Society MSc, Distinction 

Cardiff University, UK (2000-2004)
Geography BSc, First Class Honours

Career

Senior Research Fellow, University of Exeter (2016 - present)

Projects:

  • SMMR Resilience of Coastal Communities (ROCC) project (2021- present)
  • GCRF Blue Communities programme (2018- 2022)
  • ESPA Sustainable Poverty Alleviation and Ecosystem Services (SPACES) project (2016-2018)

Research consultant (2010 - present)

Recent projects:

  • UNICEF: Technical assistance on climate sensitive nutrition programming
  • FAO EAF-Nansen programme: design of training course and handbook on shared fish stock management
  • UNICEF: Applying social-ecological systems thinking to famine analysis
  • FCDO Maintaining Essential Services after Natural Disasters (Maintains) programme

Research assistant, University of Bristol (2007-2010)

Programme officer, Global International Waters Assessment, United Nations Environment Programme (2003-2006)

Research group links

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Research

Research interests

Matt’s current research falls into two main areas:

Resilience: Matt has applied his knowledge of resilience and social-ecological systems to a range of policy domains. For the FCDO Maintains programme, he led research on the climate resilience of the Kenya health system. With UNICEF and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification initiative, he is exploring how social-ecological systems thinking could improve famine analysis and response. For the ROCC project, Matt is involved in developing a nexus perspective on resilience, wellbeing and sustainability to acknowledge that any solution for one objective must equally consider the other two in the nexus.

Governance: Matt’s research has examined governance and its outcomes. He specialises in developing and applying participatory methods to explore the drivers of, and barriers to, transitions in governance towards sustainability. Matt is also interested in how hard choices are made between who wins and loses because of decisions and interventions, and how such trade-off decision-making processes could be supported to achieve more equitable and sustainable outcomes. To this end, he has developed and is piloting the Marine Planning Trade-off Analysis (MaPTA) tool in the ROCC project.

Research projects

Sustainable Development and Resilience of UK Coastal Communities (ROCC), 2021 - 2024.

Funded by the UKRI Strategic Priority Funding on Sustainable Management of UK Marine Resources, ROCC aims to build knowledge and know-how to enhance the resilience of UK marine resource-users to environmental, regulatory and socio-cultural change, while simultaneously improving their wellbeing and reducing adverse impacts on the marine environment. 

Matt's role:

  • Co-investigator on work package 3, Future
  • Leading diagnostic study on how trade-offs decisions are made in UK marine policy and management 
  • Co-leading the development and piloting of the Marine Planning Trade-off Analysis (MaPTA) tool, working with UK marine practitioners

Young Blue Futures, 2020 - 2021.

Funded by Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Climate Resilience Network Development call. This research aimed to work with young coastal resource-users to explore gendered youth perspectives and experiences of resilience to climate change and intersecting everyday adversities.

Blue Communities, 2018 - 2022.

Funded the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Capabilities programme, the programme aimed to build capacity for sustainable interactions with marine ecosystems for the benefit of the health, well-being, food security and livelihoods of coastal communities in East and Southeast Asia.

Matt's role:

  • Led the development of a novel participatory trade-off analysis tool, MaPTA, that leads stakeholders step-by-step through a process to identify the trade-offs arising from marine management interventions
  • Led the development of the participatory marine governance analysis (PMGA) toolkit 
  • Capacity developed over 30 researchers in Southeast Asia in the PMGA
  • Awarded complementary GCRF Impact Accelerator Award on Scaling-up impact and application of Blue Communities’ marine management tools and approaches in Southeast Asia

Publications:

Fortnam M et al. 2023. Practitioner approaches to trade-off decision-making in marine conservation development. People and Nature

Fortnam M et al. 2023. Polycentricity in practice: Marine governance transitions in Southeast Asia. Environmental Science & Policy. 137: 87-98

Madarcos K et al. 2022. Doing marine spatial zoning in coastal marine tropics: Palawan’s Environmental Critical Areas Network (ECAN). Marine Policy. 145: 105207

Praptiwi RA et al. 2021. Tourism-Based Alternative Livelihoods for Small Island Communities Transitioning towards a Blue Economy. Sustainability 13 (12), 6655

Sustainable Poverty Alleviation from Coastal Ecosystem Services (SPACES)

Funded by the Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme, SPACES aimed to better understand the links between ecosystem services (ES) and wellbeing in order to design and implement more effective interventions for sustainable poverty alleviation. 

Matt's role:

  • Led a meta analysis of data from across the SPACES project to understand the gender dimensions of coastal marine ecosystem services in East Africa
  • Led a rapid response project to understand the impact of the 2016 El Niño on coastal social-ecological systems in Kenya

Publications

Fortnam, M., et al. 2019. The Gendered Nature of Ecosystem Services. Ecological Economics, 159, 312-325

Fortnam, M., et al. 2021. Multiple impact pathways of the 2015–2016 El Niño in coastal Kenya. Ambio 50, 174–189 (2021)

Adger, W.N., Fortnam, M. 2018. Chapter 5, Interactions of migration and population dynamics with ecosystem services. In Mace, G., Schreckenberg, K. (eds.). Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation: Trade-offs and Governance, Routledge, London

Brown, K., Fortnam, M. (2018). Chapter 16, Gender and ecosystem services: a blind spot. In Mace, G., Schreckenberg, K. (eds.). Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation: Trade-offs and Governance, Routledge, London

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Publications

Journal articles

Fortnam M, Hailey P (2024). Insights from social-ecological systems thinking for understanding and preventing famine. Disasters Abstract.  Author URL.
Evans LS, Buchan PM, Fortnam M, Honig M, Heaps L (2023). Corrigendum: Putting coastal communities at the center of a sustainable blue economy: a review of risks, opportunities, and strategies. Frontiers in Political Science, 5
Fortnam M, Chaigneau T, Evans L, Bastian L (2023). Practitioner approaches to trade‐off decision‐making in marine conservation development. People and Nature, 5(5), 1636-1648. Abstract.
Evans LS, Buchan PM, Fortnam M, Honig M, Heaps L (2023). Putting coastal communities at the center of a sustainable blue economy: a review of risks, opportunities, and strategies. Frontiers in Political Science, 4 Abstract.
Richter I, Roberts BR, Sailley SF, Sullivan E, Cheung VV, Eales J, Fortnam M, Jontila JB, Maharja C, Nguyen TH, et al (2022). Building bridges between natural and social science disciplines: a standardized methodology to combine data on ecosystem quality trends. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci, 377(1854). Abstract.  Author URL.
Madarcos K, Fortnam M, Gajardo L, Chaigneau T, Manucan RJ, Cadigal G, Matulac J, Creencia L, Gonzales B, Evans L, et al (2022). Doing marine spatial zoning in coastal marine tropics: Palawan's Environmental Critical Areas Network (ECAN). Marine Policy, 145 Abstract.
Fortnam M, Evans L, Amira Mas Ayu AM, Bastian L, Chaigneau T, Creencia L, Goh HC, Gonzales B, Madarcos K, Maharja C, et al (2022). Polycentricity in practice: Marine governance transitions in Southeast Asia. Environmental Science and Policy, 137, 87-98. Abstract.
Fortnam M, Atkins M, Brown K, Chaigneau T, Frouws A, Gwaro K, Huxham M, Kairo J, Kimeli A, Kirui B, et al (2021). Multiple impact pathways of the 2015-2016 El Niño in coastal Kenya. Ambio, 50(1), 174-189. Abstract.  Author URL.
Praptiwi RA, Maharja C, Fortnam M, Chaigneau T, Evans L, Garniati L, Sugardjito J (2021). Tourism-Based Alternative Livelihoods for Small Island Communities Transitioning towards a Blue Economy. SUSTAINABILITY, 13(12).  Author URL.
Fortnam MP (2019). Forces opposing sustainability transformations: Institutionalization of ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management. Ecology and Society, 24(4). Abstract.
Fortnam M, Brown K, Chaigneau T, Crona B, Daw TM, Gonçalves D, Hicks C, Revmatas M, Sandbrook C, Schulte-Herbruggen B, et al (2019). The Gendered Nature of Ecosystem Services. Ecological Economics, 159, 312-325. Abstract.
Flower B, Fortnam M, Kol L, Sasin P, Wood RG (2018). Using participatory methods to uncover interacting urban risks: a case study of three informal settlements in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Environment and Urbanization, 30(1), 301-316. Abstract.

Chapters

Brown K, Fortnam M (2018). Gender and ecosystem services: a blind spot. In Schreckenberg K, Mace G, Poudyal M (Eds.) Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation: Trade-offs and Governance, London: Routledge, 257-272.
Adger N, Fortnam M (2018). Interactions of migration and population dynamics with ecosystem services. In Schreckenber K, Mace GM, Poudyal M (Eds.) Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation: Trade-offs and Governance, London: Routledge, 77-93. Abstract.
Fortnam M, Vira B, Elliott L (2011). Responses Options. In Watson R, Albon S (Eds.) The UK National Ecosystem Assessment, Cambridge: UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

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Office Hours:

Matt works part-time at the University of Exeter (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays)

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