Tormod Vaaland Burkey

A bit about my work

My research is concentrated in population dynamics, community ecology and 

conservation biology.  My main focus has been on the process of extinction and 

conservation strategies for endangered species.  My Ph.D. thesis was on the 

effect of habitat fragmentation on extinction risk.  I am interested in 

spatial patterns of habitat patchiness and patterns in biogeography.  In my 

thesis, I used simple analytical models, sometimes combined with data on 

extinction rates on islands, simulation models, and laboratory experiments to 

study the persistence of a given (sometimes hypothetical) species in 

landscapes of different degrees of subdivision/patchiness with the same total 

area of available habitat.  I have also worked with harvesting models, studied 

edge effects in humid tropical forests, extinction in insular faunas, and 

population dynamics of red deer and endangered brown bears and wolves in 

Norway.  I worked for a while as a consultant in the Environment Department of 

the World Bank, writing about ecological principles and tools for natural 

habitats management, and ecological constraints on sustainable development. 





Being now at the Centre for Development and the Enviroment I am interested 

in conflicts between humans and other species, especially around national 

parks and other kinds of nature reserves. I wonder whether `development`, 

in the common sense of western `aid` organizations trying to bring western 

consumption, values, political structures, `democrazy` etc. to the `third 

world` has not done more harm than good, and continues to do so.  I do 

believe that protecting the environment, namely life on earth and the other 

species with which we share the planet and --ultimately-- ourselves, 

requires a fundamental change in philosophy.  Chipping away at the edges to 

obtain a slight gain in recycling or emisions control, fighting perpetual 

rear guard actions where every victory is temporary and every defeat is 

permanent, is doomed to failure.  What is needed is a profound change in 

how we see ourselves in the world, what we want, the relationship between 

our lives and that of other species and other generations, a fundamental 

change in our economic system and our political systems.  An invisible hand 

is not enough to control a bull in a china shop.  Political decisions 

involving the future of life on earth, as they all do, must be subject to 

reasoned control, not the basest common denominator.



Reporter:  What do you think of Western Civilization, Mr. Gandhi?

Mahatma Gandhi:  I think it would be a good idea...



My present work at SUM involves deforestation rates in developing nations 

with tropical rainforest.  My approach involves broad statistical models 

across nations, to see if anything can be learnt thereby about the forces 

driving tropical deforestation.  For instance, is there a correlation 

between deforestation rates and foreign debt, and if so does it indicate 

that forests are being chopped down to gain hard currency to make debt

payments?  Are there difference between Africa and South America or South-East 

Asia?  Is there a statistical interaction between geographic region and 

socioeconomic covariates, indicating that different forces are driving 

deforestation in different regions or in different ways in different 

regions?  Is deforestation linked to the prevalence of landless slash and 

burn agriculturalists? Could land reform abate tropical deforestion?  Does 

population growth cause tropical deforestation?  Can we reduce tropical 

deforestation by eliminating poverty, or do wealthies people simply clear 

forests more efficiently as they gain access to more sophisticated 

machinery and infrastructure?



I am funded by the Norwegian Research Council for two years here at SUM, 

and hope that the `council` in its infinite wisdom will give me enough time 

and money to do something useful with the money they are already investing 

in my research.  See Concord...

Aus so krummen Holze,

als voraus der Mensch gemacht ist,

kann nichts ganz gerades gezimmert werden

- Immanuel Kant

You've got to run faster than that to stay in the same place...