My DPhil at Oxford Biology focuses on the human place within ecosystems, whereby I am developing a new concept called "keystone bio-cultural institutions."
Otherwise, my research expertise is on Baatɔnu society and the Baatɔnum language in the Borgou region of West Africa, the flora and fauna of that region, and participative and community-based conservation.
Though an American citizen who hails from Lithia Springs, Georgia, I have lived in the Borgou region of the Republic of Bénin for three decades. I am the director (“coordinateur”) of the Antisua Forest Regional Council (CRFA), a Beninese non-governmental and non-profit organization which provides the management structure for the Antisua Forest: a community-based nature reserve for which I had the privilege of assisting local residents with its creation in 2000. At CRFA we focus on ecological restoration via reforestation with Indigenous species of trees which we produce ourselves from seeds harvested in the bush; as well as ranger work and environmental education, advocacy and training. I am a father and grandfather, and one of very few foreign-born individuals who speak the Baatɔnum language fluently.
