Profile

Jacqui is a post-doctoral research fellow with the Australia Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and WorldFish. Her research examines issues of justice and climate change resilience in small-scale fisheries and coastal communities. She seeks to understand how coastal resources and livelihoods can be equitably sustained in the face of change. Jacqui's research is interdisciplinary, drawing on human geography and sociology, and often in collaboration with natural scientists. 

Jacqui's current research builds on previous work on how aspects of identity, perceptions of justice and morality shape and constrain environmental governance and development. These strands of work form the basis for empirical projects seeking to understand both leverage points and barriers to resilience in coastal communities, both to climate change and to the impacts of Covid-19 on wellbeing, livelihoods and food security in coastal communities in PNG and Kenya.

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 PhD project investigated the multiple values of ecosystem services and environmental justice in coastal communities in Papua New Guinea. 

Current Research Projects

• Climate change resilient small-scale fisheries 
• Environmental justice and moral principles in resource management and conservation
• Impacts of COVID-19 on coastal fishing communities 

Selected media & research reports  

The Conversation: 'We didn't have money or enough food': How COVID-19 affected Papua New Guinean fishing familles. 

ARC COE in Coral Reef Studies Research Insights: Lived Experiences of COVID-19: Impacts on an Atoll Island Community

Lessons from the Pacific about balancing community and environmental needs

'Behind the Paper' Nature Behavioural & Social Sciences: Who you know matters for climate change adaptation

Publications 

*See Googlescholar for recent publications  

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

Grantham, R., Lau, J. & Kleiber, D. 2020. Gleaning: Beyond the Subsistence Narrative. Journal of Maritime Studies.19(4):509-524

Barnes, M., Wang, P., Cinner, J., Graham, N., Guerrero, A., Jasny. L., Lau, J., Sutcliffe, S., Zamborain-Mason, J. 2020. ‘Social determinants of adaptive and transformative responses to climate change’. Nature Climate Change.10: 823-828,

Lau, J. 2020. Three Lessons for Gender Equity in Biodiversity Conservation. Conservation Biology. 34 (6): 1589-1591

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. 166(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

 

Interests

Research

• Resilience and equity of coastal resource use in developing communities. Coastal ecosystems support the livelihoods, food security and wellbeing of millions of people worldwide, but are particularly vulnerable to climate and other environmental change.
• Gaps and critiques of ecosystem services; now a dominant paradigm for investigating how people derive wellbeing from ecosystems. Ecosystem services have been critiqued for over-emphasizing the availability of services as a proxy for benefits, and thus missing the socially-stratified ways that people value, access and coproduce ecosystem services.
• Theoretical and methodological approaches to normative judgements and evaluations in relation to fisheries management, development and conservation. Normative judgements encompass evaluations of what is right and wrong, fair or unfair, what constitutes flourishing and suffering and thus what ought or ought not to happen or be done.

Experience

• 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

• Environmental management (4104)
• Development studies (4404)
• Sociology (4410)

Awards

• 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 - Crawford Award
• 2018 - International Marine Conservation Congress (IMCC) best student talk award
• 2012 - Vice Chancellor's letter of commendation, The Australian National University
• 2011 - Vice Chancellor's letter of commendation, The Australian National University

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

• Lau J, Kleiber D, Lawless S and Cohen P (2021) Gender equality in climate policy and practice hindered by assumptions. Nature Climate Change, 11, pp. 186-192, DOI:10.1038/s41558-021-00999-7.
• Lau J, Gurney G and Cinner J (2021) Environmental justice in coastal systems: perspectives from communities confronting change. Global Environmental Change, 66, Article: 102208, DOI:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102208.
• Barnes M, Wang P, Cinner J, Graham N, Guerrero A, Jasny L, Lau J, Sutcliffe S and Zamborain-Mason J (2020) Social determinants of adaptive and transformative responses to climate change. Nature Climate Change, 10, pp. 823-828, DOI:10.1038/s41558-020-0871-4.
• Grantham R, Lau J and Kleiber D (in press) Gleaning: beyond the subsistence narrative. Maritime Studies, , DOI:10.1007/s40152-020-00200-3.
• Lau J, Cinner J, Fabinyi M, Gurney G and Hicks C (2020) Access to marine ecosystem services: examining entanglement and legitimacy in customary institutions. World Development, 126, Article: 104730, DOI:10.1016/j.worlddev.2019.104730.
• Cinner J, Lau J, Bauman A, Feary D, Januchowski-Hartley F, Rojas C, Barnes M, Bergseth B, Shum E, Lahari R, Ben J and Graham N (2019) Sixteen years of social and ecological dynamics reveal challenges and opportunities for adaptive management in sustaining the commons. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116 (52), pp. 26474-26483, DOI:10.1073/pnas.1914812116.
• Lau J, Hicks C, Gurney G and Ginner J (2019) What matters to whom and why? Understanding the importance of coastal ecosystem services in developing coastal communities. Ecosystem Services, 35, pp. 219-230, DOI:10.1016/j.ecoser.2018.12.012.
• Cinner J, Adger W, Allison E, Barnes M, Brown K, Cohen P, Gelcich S, Hicks C, Hughes T, Lau J, Marshall N and Morrison T (2018) Building adaptive capacity to climate change in tropical coastal communities. Nature Climate Change, 8 (2), pp. 117-123, DOI:10.1038/s41558-017-0065-x.
• Lau J, Hicks C, Gurney G and Cinner J (2018) Disaggregating ecosystem service values and priorities by wealth, age, and education. Ecosystem Services, 29 (Part A), pp. 91-98, DOI:10.1016/j.ecoser.2017.12.005.

Other research outputs

• Lau J (2020) Three lessons for gender equity in biodiversity conservation. Conservation Biology, 34 (6), pp. 1589-1591, DOI:10.1111/cobi.13487.

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

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a 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

• Political economy of youth-led food system transformations (PhD , Secondary Advisor)
• Macro and Micro Level Determinants of the Contribution of Fish to Nutritional Security (PhD , Secondary Advisor)

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

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.