JCU > Research Portfolio > Dr Jacqueline Lau

About

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Jacqui is an environmental social scientist and 2023 ARC DECRA Fellow. Her research is interdisciplinary and draws together a range of social science disciplines—including human geography, development studies, sociology, and conservation—to examine issues of environmental justice and change in coastal communities.

She has worked collaboratively in the Pacific, East and West Africa to examine ecosystem services, the impact of shocks like COVID-19 on coastal communities, perceptions of fairness about the customary management of coral reefs, and issues of equity (including gender) in conservation and climate change policy.

Her current research seeks to help coastal communities navigate just and sustainable futures by understanding how moral values shape adaptation to environmental change. Her 2023 ARC DECRA project will investigate the role of morals and moral framings in decisions about environmental change along the Great Barrier Reef coast.

Jacqui is currently a Lecturer in the College of Arts, Education & Social Sciences. From 2019-2022 she held a joint Research Fellow position with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and WorldFish. Previously, she studied sociology at the Australian National University (2012), an MPhil in Environment, Society and Development at the University of Cambridge (2014), and a PhD in environmental social science at James Cook University (2019). Her PhD project investigated the multiple values of coral reef ecosystem services and perceptions of environmental justice in Papua New Guinea.

Jacqui welcomes contact from potential Honours, Masters and PhD students. Please email a short cover letter describing your suitability, research interests and proposed topic, and a CV with contact details for two referees.

Select Media

The Conversation
WorldFish Blogs
Nature Behavioural & Social Sciences: 'Behind the Paper'
RAID Network blog

Select Publications

*See Googlescholar for full list

Mason, J., Eurich, J., Lau, J., et al., 2022. Operationalizing resilience to climate change in fisheries. Fish and Fisheries. 23(3): 522-544

Lau, J., Kleiber, D., Lawless, S. & Cohen, P. 2021. Gender equality in climate policy and practice hindered by assumptions. Nature Climate Change. 11:186-192

Lau, J., Song, A., Morrison, T., Fabinyi, M., Brown, K., Blythe, J., Allison, E. & Adger, N. 2021. Morals and climate change decision-making: Insights from behavioural and social sciences. Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability. 52:27-35

Lau, J., Gurney, G. & Cinner, J. 2021. Environmental justice in coastal systems: perspectives from communities confronting change. Global Environmental Change.66:102208

Interests

Professional

Reviewer for Environment International; Ecology and Society; Global Environmental Change; Geoforum; Humanities and Social Sciences Communications; Marine Policy; People and Nature; Climatic Change; Maritime Studies

Research

How morality shapes adaptation to climate change in the Great Barrier Reef region.
Equity and justice in coastal governance and the socially-stratified ways that people value, access and coproduce coastal ecosystem services
Social dimensions of human-wildlife conflict (shark depredation)
Intersection between identity (incl. gender) and natural resource use and governance

Teaching

Social dimensions of conservation and environmental management (e.g., gender and development, ecosystem services, environmental justice)
Supervision of topics related to the social dimensions of environmental change, development, fisheries and coastal communities.

Experience

2023 to present - Research Fellow, CASE, JCU (Townsville)
2019 to 2022 - Postdoctoral research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence in Coral Reef Studies (Townsville)
2017 - Casual Officer, CSIRO, Dept. of Land and Water (Townsville)

Research Disciplines

Socio-Economic Objectives

Honours

Awards

2021 - ECR Green Open Access Award, JCU Library
2020 - Glenn Almany Memorial Prize for research beyond traditional academic boundaries, ARC COE in Coral Reef Studies
2020 - Dean’s Award for High Degree by Research Excellence, James Cook University
2019 - A MARE best student paper award
2018 - International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) best student talk award
2018 - Crawford Award
2012 - Vice Chancellor's letter of commendation, The Australian National University
2011 - Vice Chancellor's letter of commendation, The Australian National University

Fellowships

2023 to 2026 - ARC DECRA Fellowship
2022 to 2023 - IOC UNESCO & AXA Research Fund Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (rescinded to take up DECRA)

Memberships

2022 - PECs working group: Ocean Equity
2021 - Australian Coastal Society
2018 - The Institute of Australian Geographers
2018 - Society for Conservation Biology
2021 to 2024 - CESAB working group: Blue Justice
2021 to 2022 - ARC CoE Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion commitee
2020 to 2022 - SNAPP working group: Operationalizing Resilience in Fisheries

Publications

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

Bergseth B, Arias A, Barnes M, Caldwell I, Datta A, Gelcich S, Ham S, Lau J, Ruano-Chamorro C, Smallhorn-West P, Weekers D, Zamborain-Mason J and Cinner J (2023) Closing the compliance gap in marine protected areas with human behavioural sciences. Fish and Fisheries, 24. pp. 695-704
Blythe J, Gill D, Claudet J, Bennett N, Gurney G, Baggio J, Ban N, Bernard M, Brun V, Darling E, Di Franco A, Epstein G, Franks P, Horan R, Jupiter S, Lau J, Lazzari N, Mahajan S, Mangubhai S, Naggea J, Turner R and Zafra-Calvo N (2023) Blue justice: a review of emerging scholarship and resistance movements. Cambridge Prisms: Coastal Futures, 1.
Cumming G, Adamska M, Barnes M, Barnett J, Bellwood D, Cinner J, Cohen P, Donelson J, Fabricius K, Grafton R, Grech A, Gurney G, Hoegh-Guldberg O, Hoey A, Hoogenboom M, Lau J, Lovelock C, Lowe R, Miller D, Morrison T, Mumby P, Nakata M, Pandolfi J, Peterson G, Pratchett M, Ravasi T, Riginos C, Rummer J, Schaffelke B, Wernberg T and Wilson S (2023) Research priorities for the sustainability of coral-rich western Pacific seascapes. Regional Environmental Change, 23 (2).
Gill D, Blythe J, Bennett N, Evans L, Brown K, Turner R, Baggio J, Baker D, Ban N, Brun V, Claudet J, Darling E, Di Franco A, Epstein G, Estradivari , Gray N, Gurney G, Horan R, Jupiter S, Lau J, Lazzari N, Lestari P, Mahajan S, Mangubhai S, Naggea J, Selig E, Whitney C, Zafra-Calvo N and Muthiga N (2023) Triple exposure: Reducing negative impacts of climate change, blue growth, and conservation on coastal communities. One Earth, 6 (2). pp. 118-130
Sutcliffe S, Lau J, Barnes M, Mbaru E, Wade E, Hungito W, Muly I, Wanyonyi S, Muthiga N, Cohen P and Cinner J (2023) COVID-19 impacts on food systems in fisheries-dependent island communities. Ecology and Society, 28 (1).
Barnes M, Jasny L, Bauman A, Ben J, Berardo R, Bodin Ö, Cinner J, Feary D, Guerrero A, Januchowski-Hartley F, Kuange J, Lau J, Wang P and Zamborain-Mason J (2022) ‘Bunkering down’: How one community is tightening social-ecological network structures in the face of global change. People and Nature, 4 (4). pp. 1032-1048
Diedrich A, Duce S, Eriksson H, Govan H, Harohau D, Koczberski G, Lau J, Mills D, Minter T, Steenbergen D and Troell M (2022) An applied research agenda for navigating diverse livelihood challenges in rural coastal communities in the tropics. One Earth, 5 (11). pp. 1205-1215
Grantham R, Lau J, Mills D and Cumming G (2022) Social and temporal dynamics mediate the distribution of ecosystem service benefits from a small-scale fishery. Ecosystems and People, 18 (1). pp. 15-30
Hoel K, Chin A and Lau J (2022) Clashing conservation values: The social complexities of shark depredation. Biological Conservation, 272.
Mason J, Eurich J, Lau J, Battista W, Free C, Mills K, Tokunaga K, Zhao L, Dickey-Collas M, Valle M, Pecl G, Cinner J, McClanahan T, Allison E, Friedman W, Silva C, Yanez E, Barbieri M and Kleisner K (2022) Attributes of climate resilience in fisheries: from theory to practice. Fish and Fisheries, 23 (3). pp. 522-544
Bassett H, Lau J, Giordano C, Suri S, Advani S and Sharan S (2021) Preliminary lessons from COVID-19 disruptions of small-scale fishery supply chains. World Development, 143.
Lau J, Sutcliffe S, Barnes M, Mbaru E, Muly I, Muthiga N, Wanyonyi S and Cinner J (2021) COVID-19 impacts on coastal communities in Kenya. Marine Policy, 134.

More: ResearchOnline@JCU stores 25+ research outputs authored by Dr Jacqueline Lau from 2018 onwards.

Current Funding

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research - Fisheries Program - Small Research Activity

Spatially integrated Portfolio Approach to support a portfolio of livelihoods.

Indicative Funding: $248,458 over 3 years
Summary: The Integrated Livelihoods Approach (ILA) provides an approach to diagnose and help navigate interrelated and cumulative impacts, trade-offs and co-benefits of interacting livelihood activities occurring in spatially defined coastal areas. Participatory and interdisciplinary research, integrated governance, negotiation, trust-building, ongoing conflict management, and cross-sectoral and political engagement are central to the ILA. This project will establish the mechanisms for achieving the strengthened networks, integrated governance and policy, and improved planning required to implement an ILA in Western Province, Solomon Islands, with the potential to scale-up to other locations.
Investigators: Amy Diedrich, Jacqueline Lau, Tiffany Morrison, Nicholas Murray, Stephanie Duce, Claire Holland, Faye Siota and Bethany Smith (College of Science & Engineering, Research Division, College of Business, Law & Governance and WorldFish Solomon Islands)
Keywords: Sustainable livelihoods; Solomon Islands; Pacific Islands; Participatory research approach; Natural Resource Management

Sharks Pacific - Contract Research

Coastal Communities Adapting to Change in the Asia-Pacific

Indicative Funding: $58,870 (administered by Sharks Pacific)
Summary: This project aims to better understand equitable pathways to supporting adaptation to environmental change in coastal communities the Asia-Pacific. It seeks to identify the limits and opportunities for people to cope with and adapting to cases of environmental change, and explore how to better account for people?s moral values. This particular part of the project focuses on human-wildlife conflict at sea?increasing rates of shark depredation?in Niue. Outcomes include increased understanding of local perspectives on the issue of shark depredation and recommendations to equitably govern this growing conservation issue.
Investigators: Jacqueline Lau (College of Arts and Society & Education)
Keywords: Shark depredation; Human-wildlife conflict; Morality; Conservation; Fisheries

Crawford Fund - International Engagement Award

Beyond Food and Money: Uncovering the hidden values of gleaning in the Asia-Pacific

Indicative Funding: $12,000 over 1 year
Summary: Gleaning, the activity of collecting of marine organisms from inter-tidal habitats, is a common fishing strategy and provider of food and income. Yet, it remains poorly understood, and is persistently underrepresented in statistics and narratives about small-scale fisheries. Despite some emerging research on the importance of gleaning for household food security in vulnerable coastal areas in developing countries, the voices and values of gleaners often remain unheard in coastal management and development decision-making. To address this, we propose a collaborative project to investigate and begin to address the invisibility of gleaning in the Asia- Pacific through a capacity building workshop.
Investigators: Jacqueline Lau and Ruby Grantham (Research Division and University of Exeter)
Keywords: Gleaning; Asia-Pacific; Gender; Capacity building; Environmental Values

Supervision

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

Macro and Micro Level Determinants of the Contribution of Fish to Nutritional Security (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
Building Social Resilience to rapid change in Coastal Communities (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
Political economy of youth-led food system transformations (PhD , Secondary Advisor)

Data

These are the most recent metadata records associated with this researcher. To see a detailed description of all dataset records, visit Research Data Australia.

Lau, J. (2020) Surveys on the importance of coastal ecosystem services in developing coastal communities, Papua New Guinea. James Cook University

Collaboration

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.