Emu-Felicitas Ostermann-Miyashita is a postdoctoral fellow at WildCRU and is also affiliated with the Humboldt University of Berlin (HU) and the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Germany. At WildCRU, she is part of the controversial conservation theme and is conducting research on public perceptions of controversial conservation issues in Germany, namely coexistence with carnivores (wolf, lynx and bear) and the acceptability of trophy hunting in sub-Saharan Africa. She uses quantitative methods to investigate which variables such as knowledge, identity, preferences and socio-demographic background affect people’s perception of conservation issues or specific species.

At the Humboldt University, she is leading an EU BiodiverSA+ funded project TransWILD, which examines human-wildlife interactions in protected areas of five European countries (Bulgaria, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Spain) through a transdisciplinary lens, with partners from different disciplines (ecology, geography, social sciences and political sciences).

She has received training in environmental sciences and environmental toxicology (chemistry) in her bachelor and master at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT).

During a semester abroad in Germany, she was introduced to citizen science (participation of members of the public in scientific research) and was intrigued by it’s potential in environmental and conservation science, which motivated her to pursue a PhD in an interdisciplinary field of social and ecological sciences. Her PhD research explored the potential of citizen science, both as a monitoring tool and as a participatory management approach, for realizing a better and more sustainable coexistence with returning wildlife species (bison, moose and wolf) in Germany. She applied a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods including questionnaires, stakeholder workshops and interviews.

She is interested in how diverse values and worldviews impact people’s perception of wildlife and nature, as well as local ecological knowledge on human-wildlife coexistence. Having grown up in Japan, she would like to extend her research to examine the cultural and historical backgrounds that influence people’s worldviews and relationships with wildlife and nature in Japan.