DrCaroline Howe

Dr Howe FBES is an Associate Professor in Biodiversity and Climate Ecology at Imperial College London, Vice President of the British Ecological Society, Deputy Programme Director for Imperial’s MSc in Environmental Technology, Co-Lead and Co-Founder of Imperial College’s Network of Excellence in Women’s Health and an Advisory Board Member of Imperial’s Global Development Hub. She has been listed in the ENDS Report Power List 2025 and 2026 as one of the UK's 100 most influential environmental professionals. She was appointed as a Fellow of the British Ecological Society in 2025. Her research is highly interdisciplinary and focuses on exploring the relationship between people and nature and how these relationships influence the outcome and success of sustainable development policies through the underpinning interactions between biodiversity, ecosystem services, and human well-being. She leads the Transdisciplinary Centre for Nature and People (TCNP) within the Centre for Environmental Policy. 

The Transdisciplinary Centre for Nature and People (TCNP) is a dynamic and multi-disciplinary team working across multiple continents, at all geographic scales, using innovative and novel approaches to have real-world impact. The TCNP takes a systems-based approach to exploring the people-nature nexus; we evaluate and develop new context-specific approaches to nature-based solutions, environmental management, climate mitigation and adaptation, human health and well-being (with an urban focus), sustainable food systems, and sustainable development. This is observed through a lens of equity and justice which enables us to account for intersectionality, integrate indigenous and local knowledge (ILK), and take into consideration pre-existing and potential inequalities to ensure our research contributes to the success of international agreements and programmes that are vital to the planet’s health and well-being.

Past and current members of the group have explored topics ranging from case-study specific systems including the implementation of seaweed aquaculture within wind farms as part of multi-use settings, the trade-off between tourism and climate change on wild dogs and local communities in Kenya, conflicts around badger management in the UK, sustainable palm agriculture in West Africa, edible insects and cultural ecosystems and blue spaces in the UK. At a more regional scale, members have explored the biological and socio-economic impacts of large infrastructure projects such as the Belt-and-Road Initiative in China, the development, use and impact of Carbon Calculators for the agricultural and land-use sectors focusing particularly on Nigeria, the use of natural capital and ecosystem services in participatory decision-making, community-based fire management and colonial narratives in East and Southern Africa, and the role of urban horticulture and green spaces in improving human health and well-being in cities. Finally, at the global scale the TCNP has been exploring how biodiversity in mainstreamed within the UN system, the importance of gender within global policies for biodiversity and climate change and applying a values-based approach to inform the design and financing decisions for a nature-based solutions.

Dr Howe was a Lead Author on the IPBES (Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) Nexus Assessment 2022-24 and was a Contributing Author to the IPBES Global Assessment on Ecosystem Services 2017-2018, as well as a co-author for the ESPA (Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation) textbook on Ecosystem Services and Human Wellbeing: Trade-Offs and Governance. She has been an invited speaker at many events including the UN on Mainstreaming Biodiversity in the Context of Human Security and Well-being and Imperial College Alumni Insights: Future Cities. Caroline leads the M.O.U. between Imperial College and the United Nations Environmental Management Group (UNEMG), which focuses on the role that Imperial College can play in providing scientific support to the UN on issues surrounding biodiversity and human well-being and the SDGs, and the role of the UN EMG in facilitating the implementation of policy outcomes from Imperial College research.

As well as considerations of equity and justice within her research itself, Dr Howe is also a champion for gender and diversity within her working life. She led the Centre for Environmental Policy’s successful application for Athena SWAN Bronze and sits on the EDI committee for the CEP. She has been involved in several EDI events including the Faculty of Natural Sciences Changing the Face of Science Symposium 2024, Women in Conservation 2023, Women at Imperial 2019 and Soapbox Science I Manchester in 2016. In addition, she champions gender, diversity and inclusion within the TCNP, the wider CEP and in the teaching for the MSc in Environmental Technology.

She has seven completed PhD students and currently supervises a further four.