Stephen Sutton, MA, D.Phil (Oxford)
Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society (UK), F.R.E.S.
Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (UK), F.R.G.S.
This website aims to introduce you to Stephen Sutton’s current activities, background and publications.
Dr Stephen Sutton has been an invertebrate ecologist for 45 years, with a particular interest in tropical forest insects. He has been one of the pioneers of upper canopy research in rainforests. He has been active in environmental consultancy since the mid 1980′s. He has wide experience of planning and managing scientific field surveys and research programmes for major NGO’s and parastatal bodies such as The Royal Society, London. He has written or edited 7 books and published 65 papers/ articles. He has organised 2 major international conferences and acted as senior editor of 3 conference publications. He is the Organizing Chairman of an international conference on Sustainability and Climate Change for the 65 Rotary Clubs of District 3310 scheduled for March 2012 (Distr. 3310 comprises Malacca and Johor in West Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei plus Sabah & Sarawak in East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo). The aim of this conference is to use the organizing skills and reach of Rotary to alert decision makers and businessmen to the need to prepare for impending shortages of food, water and decent weather.
Research Qualifications:
D.Phil (=PhD) in the ecology of terrestrial isopods (woodlice or slaters). Developed a research team of PhD students at Leeds University in the UK and carried out a long-term study of the population dynamics of woodlice which produced many papers. Meanwhile, feeling drawn by the challenge of research on insects in the upper canopy of tropical rainforest, in 1974 he joined an expedition to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) and made the first quantitative study of insects in the upper canopy using traps. As Project Director for tropical forest science for Operation Drake 1978-1980 he was able to develop this work at 3 sites in the main rainforest blocs around the world. Subsequently he has continued to publish papers on canopy insects and to review methods of access and research priorities. He participated in the Sulawesi (Indonesia) phase of Operation Drake, gaining valuable research data on canopy insects. In the late 1980′s he moved his research to Danum Valley in Sabah and supervised a PhD and an MSc on beetles and butterflies as indicators of forest disturbance. Since childhood he has been interested in the life histories and distribution of moths and butterflies, and in 1988-9 acted as senior editor and publisher of a 380 page book on a regional fauna, ‘The Moths & Butterflies of Yorkshire’ (UK).
Environmental Survey Development and Management:
A new phase began in 1978 and 79 when he organised the invertebrate component of the Brunei Muzium’s survey of the Ulu Temburong area of Brunei. This work was one strand of activity leading to the gazetting of much of the area as a National Park in the 1990′s and the establishment of the Kuala Belalong research station.
Similarly, the survey work he helped plan for the Morowali area of Sulawesi in 1980 led eventually to the area being declared a National Park.
In 1983 he was seconded by Leeds University to Operation Raleigh (now Raleigh International) for 2 years to become Director of Research for this round the world venture to give 4,000 young adults an opportunity for personal development while carrying out science and community tasks in challenging parts of the world. His team found and shipped out 300 science team leaders to 30 countries in 4 years. The team leaders were largely academics wanting teams of assistants to carry out 3 month projects. From this he learnt a great deal about organising and motivating scientists and the criteria for successful survey work.
Consultancies:
Because of knowledge gained of tropical wildlife, he was asked in 1986 to act as consultant in the making of the TV series The Living Planet, the second of David Attenborough’s magnum opera.
In 1987 he was retained for 1 month by Merlewood Estates Lts to advise on the management and development of the 8K ha Shipstern Reserve in Belize.
Also in 1987 he was an EIA consultant to Cremer and Warner in the UK assessing the suitability (from the point of view of disturbance of important wildlife) of 4 sites as burial grounds for low-level nuclear waste. This was a lesson not only in wildlife surveying but also of the socio-economic implications of government action (local residents were terrified, probably with good reason, that having a nuclear dump on their doorsteps would do bad things to their house prices). The awareness he gained from this exercise is relevant, he feels, to the need to think of the socio-economic dimension when drafting proposals for wildlife conservation
From 1989-1994 he was on the Board of Consultants of the International Scientific Support Trust (later Trekforce), a UK based charity providing opportunities for young people to travel abroad to carry out scientific and community tasks.
Working on a consultancy basis, in 1990 he became Research Coordinator of the SE Asia Rainforest Research Programme (RS-SEARRP) of The Royal Society of London (=National Academy of Science). Splitting his time equally between the UK and Sabah, he built up this programme for 10 years, and was responsible for supervising the distribution of funds to environmental research initiatives in SE Asia (most of the money being directed to Danum Valley Research Centre in Sabah, but RS-SEARRP had projects in W. Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand as well).
In 2003 he became Advisor for E Asia for the Global Canopy Programme, an NGO based in Oxford, UK seeking to promote forest canopy science worldwide. GCP is now (2010) heavily involved in the development of REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation & Degradation), with government funding.
Relevant Employment:
Lecturer & Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds UK 1966-1990
Other relevant posts:
- European Science Foundation: Member of the Steering Committee, Tropical Canopy Research Programme 1992-1999
- President, Yorkshire Naturalists Union, UK 1990
- Council Member Yorkshire Wildlife Trust 1976-1980
- Chairman of Hetchell Wood Nature Reserve, Yorkshire, UK 1970-78 (when he learnt how to write a management plan)
- Visiting Research Fellow, 1998 to present, Institute of Tropical Biology and Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. He provides a link between the Institute and the international science research community
