Jeffrey Wall

Jeffrey Wall is a Senior Research Fellow at the Turku Institute for Advanced Studies (TIAS) and affiliated with the Degree Programme in Digital Culture, Landscape and Cultural Heritage at the University of Turku. As an MSCA-TIES Fellow with a PhD in Natural Resources and Environment, he specializes in ethnoecology, environmental anthropology, and biocultural stewardship, focusing on threatened culturally significant landscapes across the Near East, Central Asia, and North America.

• Education: PhD in Natural Resources and Environment

His current research, "Homeland No More: Seeking the Biocultural Origins of Landscape Abandonment in the Mediterranean Basin," collaborates with olive-caring communities in Turkey and Morocco to investigate rural exodus through cultural-ecological pre-conditions. This Indigenous-led conservation approach bridges grassroots environmental assessments with global ecological change, emphasizing rural lifeway viability.

Recent publications analyze chestnut agroforestry under disease pressure, cultural keystone species, and Indigenous conservation frameworks. His work has been featured in outlets like Nature Reviews Biodiversity and Environmental Science and Policy, with a focus on policy integration and decolonizing methodologies.

• Scientific Awards:
  • MSCA-TIES Fellow

Wall serves as Senior Editor for the Journal of Ethnobiology and collaborates with communities in Turkey, Morocco, and Canada. His research integrates traditional livelihood practices with modern conservation strategies, addressing pest/disease mitigation and cultural continuity in agroforestry systems.