Diogo Veríssimo

Biographic Data

ID160389
NAMEDiogo Veríssimo
GIVEN NAMESDiogo
FAMILY NAMEVeríssimo
SIGNATUREVERÍSSIMO D
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Oxford
ORCID0000-0002-3519-6782
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS30
TOTAL CITATIONS20
AUTHOR COUNT30
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2012
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX3

  • Six actions to harness the potential of social surveys on people and nature relations: A UK cross‐sectoral perspective

    Open AccessJasper Montana, Lea May Anderson et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2026

    Robust data on the state of relationships between people and nature is a critical component of the evidence base for environmental governance at local, national and global scales. Social surveys are a valuable method already used by some governmental and non‐governmental organisations to gather this evidence. However, a lack of coordination hampers efforts to harness the potential of people‐and‐nature surveys to better inform policy and practice.…

  • Games for Gaia: Leveraging Gaming Interventions for Biodiversity Conservation

    Open AccessKatie Blake, Katherine Tubb et al.ARTICLEConservation and Society2025References: 24

    For over two thirds of people on Earth using the internet, digital platforms have become integral to daily life, profoundly influencing how we engage with the world, including our interactions with nature. According to ITU (International Telecommunication Union) estimates, approximately 5.4 billion people were using the Internet in 2023 (ITU 2024). As urbanisation continues to rise, with predictions that 70% of the global population will reside i…

  • The Elephant Queen: Can a nature documentary help to increase tolerance towards elephants

    Open AccessH F Williams, K L Leneuiyia et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2024

    Conflict between humans and elephants is one of the more complex examples of human‐wildlife conflict, a key challenge for wildlife conservation. While interventions exist to separate humans from elephants, few exist aimed at bringing the two species closer together. This study assesses if a natural history film, The Elephant Queen (TEQ), makes communities living around elephants more tolerant of conflict with elephants. Questionnaires and intervi…

  • Using photo editing to understand the impact of species aesthetics on support for conservation

    Open AccessMeghan Shaw, Matilda Eve Dunn et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2024

    Many threatened species suffer from a lack of conservation attention compared to others. Prioritisation of funding, research and conservation efforts seem to be driven by reasons beyond conservation need. This could be due to a ‘beauty bias’, whereby aesthetically pleasing species receive more attention. We examined how editing an image to increase a species' aesthetic appeal may impact donation choices and public attitude towards that species. W…

  • Understanding consumers to inform market interventions for Singapore's shark fin trade

    Open AccessChristina Choy, Hollie Booth et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2024

    Sharks, rays and their cartilaginous relatives (Class Chondrichthyes, herein ‘sharks’) are among the world's most threatened species groups, primarily due to overfishing, which in turn is driven by complex market forces including demand for fins. Understanding the high‐value shark fin market is a global priority for conserving shark and rays, yet the preferences of shark fin consumers are not well understood. This gap hinders the design of eviden…

  • The manifold costs of being a non-native English speaker in science

    Open AccessTetsuya Amano, Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda et al.ARTICLEPLOS Biology2023

    The use of English as the common language of science represents a major impediment to maximising the contribution of non-native English speakers to science. Yet few studies have quantified the consequences of language barriers on the career development of researchers who are non-native English speakers. By surveying 908 researchers in environmental sciences, this study estimates and compares the amount of effort required to conduct scientific act…

  • Applying a co‐design approach with key stakeholders to design interventions to reduce illegal wildlife consumption

    Open AccessSifan Hu, Zhijian Liang et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2023

    Co‐design, an approach that seeks to incorporate the experiences and perspectives of different stakeholders, is increasingly being used to develop audience‐oriented behaviour change interventions. The complexity of wildlife consumption behaviour makes the co‐design approach an important potential tool for the design of conservation interventions that aim to reduce illegal wildlife trade. Yet, little is known about how to adapt and apply the co‐de…

  • Understanding the Market Drivers Behind the Reduced Demand for Ivory Products in Japan

    Open AccessLaura Thomas-Walters, Benoit Morkel et al.ARTICLEConservation and Society2023

    Reducing demand for wildlife products has been recognised as an important global priority. However, consumer demand is a complicated phenomenon involving numerous interacting biological and socio-economic factors, operating at a range of scales and time periods. The demand for elephant ivory is an excellent illustration of the gaps in our current knowledge. Although it is well-documented that Japan is no longer a significant destination consumer …

  • How Will the End of Bear Bile Farming in Vietnam Influence Consumer Choice

    Open AccessElizabeth O Davis, Diogo Veríssimo et al.ARTICLEConservation and Society2022

    The Vietnamese Government committed to closing all bear farms in the country by 2022. Some researchers have expressed concerns that ending the commercial farming of bears, while demand for bear bile persists, could lead to increased hunting pressure on wild bear populations. In this article, we used mixed methods of questionnaires, Discrete Choice Experiments (DCEs), and interviews to investigate current consumer demand for bear bile in Vietnam, …

  • The implications of digital visual media for human–nature relationships

    Open AccessMatthew J Silk, Matthew Silk et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2021

    Amid biodiversity and climate crises, the way we encounter and communicate about the natural world is changing. Increased technological capability, accessibility and connectivity have enabled a proliferation of content, platforms and consumption of digital visual media. Even as environmental and conservation scientists have—perhaps belatedly—begun investigating how ‘traditional’ forms of digital visual media (e.g. movies, television) affect the t…

  • Who eats wild meat? Profiling consumers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    Open AccessAlegria Olmedo, Diogo Veríssimo et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2021

    Overexploitation for consumption of meat from wild animals in urban centres currently threatens numerous species across the globe. Indiscriminate offtake to satisfy demand for wild meat affects a range of wildlife of conservation concern in Vietnam. It is essential to understand the consumption of wild meat in Vietnam in order to ensure it is not detrimental to wild species. We apply the principles of target audience segmentation to a sample of 3…

  • Stepping into the Wildeverse: Evaluating the impact of augmented reality mobile gaming on pro‐conservation behaviours

    Open AccessMatilda Eve Dunn, Gautam Shah et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2021

    Promoting pro‐conservation behaviours has become a priority for conservation organisations world‐wide. Yet, current engagement strategies still face a number of barriers to creating successful interventions at the scale needed to meet global sustainability challenges. Online and mobile games enjoy immense world‐wide popularity, tapping into an audience not normally reached through conventional conservation outreach channels. Despite this potentia…

  • Using theory and evidence to design behaviour change interventions for reducing unsustainable wildlife consumption

    Open AccessHunter L Doughty, Kathryn Oliver et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2021

    Efforts to shift unsustainable human behaviour are at the crux of many conservation interventions, particularly when addressing illegal or unsustainable wildlife trade. These efforts, often in the form of behaviour change interventions, have proven largely unable to counteract this pervasive issue, however, leading to calls for more robust intervention designs. In behavioural science fields like public health, design processes that integrate huma…

  • Nature documentaries as catalysts for change: Mapping out the ‘Blackfish Effect’

    Open AccessLaure Boissat, Laura Thomas-Walters et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2021

    It is essential for us to understand what drives human behaviour if we want to tackle anthropogenic damage to the environment. Popular media can play an important role in shaping public attitudes, behaviours and norms towards wildlife, and documentaries in particular have become an increasingly prominent tool for social change. There is, however, a need for robust impact evaluation both in documentary‐making and in conservation, to refine future …

  • What determines the success and failure of environmental crowdfunding

    Open AccessTakahiro Kubo, Diogo Veríssimo et al.ARTICLEAMBIO2021References: 69

    Online crowdfunding can help address the perennial financial shortfalls in environmental conservation and management. Although many online crowdfunding campaigns fail to collect any funds due to not achieving their targets, little is known about what drives success. To address this knowledge gap, we applied a mixed-methods approach to data from 473 successful and failed campaigns hosted on the online crowdfunding platform Readyfor. We found that …

  • Biodiversity conservation as a promising frontier for behavioural science

    Open AccessKristian Steensen Nielsen, Theresa M Marteau et al.ARTICLENature Human Behaviour2021Cited by: 6References: 92

  • Insights for reducing the consumption of wildlife: The use of bear bile and gallbladder in Cambodia

    Open AccessElizabeth Oneita Davis, Diogo Veríssimo et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2020

    Unsustainable wildlife use is one of the leading threats to earth's biodiversity. Historically, efforts to address this issue have been focused on increasing enforcement and anti‐poaching measures. However, recognition that such supply‐reduction measures may be inefficient has spurred a movement towards consumer research and behaviour change. Here, we used consumer research to investigate the consumption of bear bile and gallbladder in Cambodia. …

  • Challenges in the impact evaluation of behaviour change interventions: The case of sea turtle meat and eggs in São Tomé

    Open AccessLaura Thomas-Walters, Sara Vieira et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2020

    Robust impact evaluations are needed for conservation to learn and grow as a field. Currently we lack a large body of evidence on the effects of behaviour change interventions in social‐ecological systems. By uncovering mechanistic relationships and establishing causality we can refine future programmes to enhance likelihood of effectiveness. Although a range of sophisticated methodological approaches to evaluation have been developed, conceptual…

  • Influencing consumer demand is vital for tackling the illegal wildlife trade

    Open AccessDiogo Veríssimo, Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2020

    Consumer demand is an integral part of any market system, and the markets involving wildlife products are no exception ('t Sas-Rolfes et al., 2019). Tackling the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) for the benefit of biodiversity conservation requires understanding and influencing consumer demand (Veríssimo et al., 2020). While demand reduction activities are increasing (Veríssimo & Wan, 2019), they remain poorly funded, with only 6% of the funds commit…

  • Ethical Publishing in Biodiversity Conservation Science

    Open AccessDiogo Veríssimo, Thomas Pienkowski et al.ARTICLEConservation and Society2020

    For many researchers, particularly in academia, publishing in peer-reviewed journals is a necessity, with major implications for their career progression. Yet, it is increasingly recognised that the current scientific publishing model is not fair and equitable, which can have severe consequences for the way science is accessed and used in nature conservation. We evaluated the publishing model of 426 conservation science journals against the Fair …

  • A scoping review into the impact of animal imagery on pro-environmental outcomes

    Open AccessLaura Thomas-Walters, Claire McNulty et al.ARTICLEAMBIO2020

    With the recognition that most global environmental problems are a result of human actions, there is an increasing interest in approaches which have the potential to influence human behaviour. Images have a powerful role in shaping persuasive messages, yet research on the impacts of visual representations of nature is a neglected area in biodiversity conservation. We systematically screened existing studies on the use of animal imagery in conserv…

  • Did the movie Finding Dory increase demand for blue tang fish

    Open AccessDiogo Veríssimo, Sean Anderson et al.ARTICLEAMBIO2020Cited by: 1References: 27

    Representations of wildlife in television and films have long been hypothesized to shape human-wildlife interactions. A recent example is Pixar's film Finding Dory, which featured a blue tang fish (Paracanthurus hepatus) as the main character and was widely reported in the popular press to have increased the number of such fish in the pet trade. We use Bayesian posterior predictive counterfactual models to evaluate the movie's effect on three met…

  • Nature documentaries and saving nature: Reflections on the new Netflix series Our Planet

    Open AccessJulia P G Jones, Laura Thomas-Walters et al.ARTICLEPeople and Nature2019

    Netflix recently launched its high‐profile nature documentary Our Planet. Voiced by Sir David Attenborough in English (with Salma Hayek, Penelope Cruz and other Hollywood actors voicing versions simultaneously released in 10 other languages), Netflix are making a clear play for core BBC territory. However, they claim that this is a nature documentary with a difference as it puts the threats facing nature front and center to the narrative. We code…

  • Mainstreaming the social sciences in conservation

    Open AccessNathan J Bennett, Rainer Roth et al.ARTICLEConservation Biology2017

    Despite broad recognition of the value of social sciences and increasingly vocal calls for better engagement with the human element of conservation, the conservation social sciences remain misunderstood and underutilized in practice. The conservation social sciences can provide unique and important contributions to society's understanding of the relationships between humans and nature and to improving conservation practice and outcomes. There are…

  • Conservation social science: Understanding and integrating human dimensions to improve conservation

    Open AccessNathan J Bennett, Rainer Roth et al.ARTICLEBiological Conservation2017

    It has long been claimed that a better understanding of human or social dimensions of environmental issues will improve conservation. The social sciences are one important means through which researchers and practitioners can attain that better understanding. Yet, a lack of awareness of the scope and uncertainty about the purpose of the conservation social sciences impedes the conservation community's effective engagement with the human dimension…