Bachman, Steven P.
Job TitleSpecies Conservation Assessment Officer
DepartmentHerbarium, Library, Art & Archives
SectionGIS Unit, Biodiversity, Information and Economic Botany
Science Teams:
- Madagascar
- Myrtaceae
- Drylands: Africa
- Large-Scale Syntheses
- Wet Tropics: Africa
- Temperate Team
- Conventions and Policies
- Wet Tropics: SE Asia
Joined Kew: 2004
Foreign Language(s): Basic Portuguese
Qualifications & Appointments
BSc, Environmental Geosciences, Brunel University, 2003.
Role
Co-ordination and development of activities relating to species conservation assessments, in particular the application of the IUCN Red List categories and criteria.
The central node for species conservation assessment activity at Kew. Role includes: the development of a database and web infrastructure for assessment auditing/dissemination (CATS), the provision of training protocols for assessment activities and the development of tools (such as GeoCAT) for automated conservation assessments. In addition, the role includes the development of methodologies to improve the quality of and increase output of conservation assessments from Kew. This contributes substantially to the delivery of the Breathing Planet Programme target 2 (BPP 2) - mapping and prioritising and the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) 3 target. Additional interests include the application of GIS methods for Red Listing and conservation, use of the Red List as a barometer for biodiversity (e.g. Sampled Red List Index), the use of electronic devices for data capture in the field, large scale digitisation, georeferencing and web mapping tools.
Projects
- Biodiversity and Evolutionary Patterns in Mediterranean-type Ecosystems
- Biodiversity inventory and monitoring to conserve critically threatened lowland forest in Sumatra
- Biogeography and Conservation of Myrtaceae
- Conservation Checklist of the Trees of Uganda
- Conservation Assessment Tracking System (CATS)
- Diversity of Neotropical Meliaceae
- Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (EDGE) Plants
- Electronic Field Data Collection
- Field Guides: published and planned
- GeoCAT – Geospatial Conservation Assessment Tool
- IUCN Red List Reassessment of Conifers
- Madagascar GIS
- MSB Enhancement Project Part 1A: Species Targeting (Project completed 2008)
- Phylogenetic Diversity of the Malagasy Legumes: New Insights for the Conservation of the Malagasy Flora
- Red Data Book & Teachers' Guide, Cameroon
- Reinforcing cooperation between the Royal Botanic Garden of Jordan and the European Research Area (BOT-ERA)
- Restoring biodiversity and ecosystem services in the Atlantic Forests of Brasil
- Sampled Red List Index for Plants
- Vegetation mapping in the Geelvink Bay Papua, Indonesia
Selected Recent Publications
Bachman, S., Moat, J., Hill, A., de la Torre, J. Scott, B. (2011) Supporting Red List threat assessments with GeoCAT: Geospatial Conservation Assessment Tool. Zookeys (in press)
Demissew, S., Friis, I., Awas, T., Wilkin, P., Weber, O., Bachman, S. & Nordal, I. (2011). Four new species of Aloe (Aloaceae) from Ethiopia, with notes on the ethics of describing new taxa from foreign countries. Kew Bulletin 66: 111-121.
Rivers, M.C, Bachman, S.P., Meagher, T.R., Nic Lughadha, E. & Brummitt, N.A. (2010). Subpopulations, locations and fragmentation: applying IUCN red list criteria to herbarium specimen data. Biodiversity and Conservation 19(7): 2071-2085.
Plants under pressure a global assessment. The first report of the IUCN Sampled Red List Index for Plants. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK. 2010 [pdf]
Murray-Smith, C., Brummitt, N.A., Bachman, S.P., Oliveira-Filho, A.T., Nic Lughadha, E., Moat, J.F. & Lucas, E.J. (2009). Plant diversity hotspots in the Atlantic coastal forests of Brazil. Conservation Biology 23(1): 151–163
Brummitt N., Bachman S.P. & Moat J (2008) AS WE SEE IT: Applications of the IUCN Red List: towards a global barometer for plant diversity. Endangered Species Research 6: 127-135.
Selected Earlier Publications
Bachman, S., Baker, W.J., Brummitt, N., Dransfield, J. & Moat, J. (2004). Elevational gradients, area and tropical island diversity: an example from the palms of New Guinea. Ecography 27: 299–310.
