Dr. Thomas Van Rensburg thomas.vanrensburg@nuigalway.ie Telephone: 353 91 493858 Location: Room 211, First Floor, St. Anthony's Personal page: http://www.nuigalway.ie/enre/

I joined the Department of Economics in 2002. I received my undergraduate degree from University College of North Wales, Bangor and completed my PhD at the University of York, UK. My academic interests are mainly in environmental economics, institutional economics and marine resource economics. In the last 10 years I have focused primarily on the use and development of non-market valuation techniques such as contingent valuation, conjoint analyses, the travel cost method and the production function approach to valuation. I have used these methods to estimate the economic value of outdoor recreation in forests, managed high nature value farm landscapes, marine protected areas and cold water coral ecosystems. My work has also focused on institutions and the local governance of communal natural resources. For example I am interested in the economics of property rights, compliance behaviour, social capital and cooperation. This research explores how different systems of property rights lead individuals to behave differently with respect to the use of natural resources. Some of this research has explored cooperation and the use of social capital and social network theory to address collective action dilemmas in the management of natural resources. I have used this approach to evaluate local institutions in upland grazing ecosystems managed under common property regimes, recreational partnerships and in the governance of marine resources such as marine protected areas. I am also interested in experimental economics, the ecosystems approach to fisheries management, water resources and renewable energy.

I have published in international peer reviewed journals including Land Economics, Ecological Economics, Land Use Policy, Oceanography and the Economic and Social Review and Marine Policy and presented papers at major international conferences such as American Association of Agricultural Economists and European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. I have acted as a consultant to several international development organizations including FAO, FINIDA and IFAD, and has been a PI on two EU framework projects and I am leading two research projects for the Republic of Ireland’s Research Stimulus Fund. I am director of the PhD programme in Economics as well as the graduate programme in Economic and Environmental Modelling at NUI, Galway. I am also director of the Environmental and Natural Resource Economics research Unit’ (ENRE) at NUI, Galway. This covers research on environmental economics and sustainable development.

I am also Head of ENRE http://www.nuigalway.ie/enre/ Environmental and Natural Resource Economics Research Unit

Selected Publications:

Di Falco, S., van Rensburg, T.M., Penov, I., Alexsiev, A. Agrobiodiversity, farm profits and land fragmentation: evidence from Bulgaria. Forthcoming in Land Use Policy.

Foley, N., Van Rensburg, T., Armstrong, C.W. 2010. The ecological and economic value of cold water coral ecosystems. Ocean and Coastal Management xxx (2010) 1-14.

Foley, N., Armstrong, C.W., Kahui, V. and van Rensburg, 2010. T. Estimating linkages between redfish and cold-water coral on the Norwegian coast. Marine Resource Economics, Vol. 25, pp. 105-120.

Glenn, H., Wattage, P., Mardle, S., van Rensburg, T.M., Grehan, A., Foley, N. 2010. Marine protected areas - substantiating their worth. Marine Policy 34, pp. 421-430

Buckley, C., Hynes, S., van Rensburg, T.M. and Doherty, E. 2009. Walking in the Irish countryside - Landowner preferences and attitudes to improved public access provision. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 52(8), pp. 1053-1070.

Lally, B., Riordan, B., van Rensburg, T. 2009. Controlling Agricultural Emissions of Nitrates: Regulations versus Taxes. Journal of Farm Management, 13(8): 557-573.

Buckley, C., van Rensburg, T.M., Hynes, S. 2009. Recreational demand for farm commonage in Ireland: A contingent valuation assessment. Land Use Policy 26(3): 846-854.

Grehan, A.J., van den Hove, S., Armstrong, C.W., Long, R., van Rensburg, T.M., Gunn, V., Mikkelsen, E., De Mol, B. and Hain, S. 2009. HERMES Promoting Ecosystem-Based Management and the Sustainable Use and Governance of Deep-Water Resources. Oceanography, 22(1): 154-167.

van Rensburg, T.M., Murphy, E. and Rocks, P. 2009. Commonage land and farmer uptake of the rural environment protection scheme in Ireland. Land Use Policy 26(2): 345-355.

Di Falco, S., van Rensburg, T.M. 2008. Making the commons work: conservation and cooperation in Ireland. Land Economics 84(4): 620-634.

Buckley, C., van Rensburg, T.M., Hynes, S. 2008. What are the financial returns to agriculture from a common property resource? A case study of Irish commonage. Journal of Farm Management 13: (4): 1-15.

Buckley, C., Hynes, S., van Rensburg, T.M. 2008. Public access for walking in the Irish counrtyside – how can supply be improved? Forthcoming in Tearmann: Irish Journal of Agri-Environmental Research Volume 6: 1-14.

Mill, G.A., van Rensburg, T.M., Hynes, S. and Dooley, C. 2007. Preferences for multiple use forest management in Ireland: citizen and consumer perspectives. Ecological Economics 60: (3). 642-653.

Hynes, S., Buckley, C, van Rensburg, T.M. 2007. Recreational pursuits on marginal farm land: a discrete-choice model of Irish farm commonage recreation. Economic and Social Review 38: (1). 63-84.

van Rensburg, T.M., Mill, G.A., Common, M. and Lovett, J. 2002. Preferences and multiple use forest management. Ecological Economics 43: 231-244.

van Rensburg, T.M. 2001. The Spanish dehesas: a financial appraisal of holm oak. Investigación Agraria 1: 125- 136.