Dr Damien Jourdain obtained a BSc degree from the Ecole Natioanale Supérieure d’Agronomie de Montpellier at Montpellier University in France. He also holds a master’s degree and a PhD in Agricultural and Environmental Economics. Through the University of Montpellier, he passed the Habilitation (HRD) exam in Economics. HRD constitutes an accreditation to direct research, which is the highest university degree that can be awarded in France.

Dr Jourdain has been doing research at the University of Pretoria (UP) since September 2017 as part of a collaboration with the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD). He is a permanent CIRAD researcher based at UP and investigates issues related to environmental economics in South Africa and more generally in Southern Africa. Dr Jourdain is based at UP’s Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa, which is located in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development.

He is an active member of the PRECOS (Practices, Social Representations and Behaviours within Socio-Hydrosystems) team at CIRAD, which explores the various components of the dynamics of a socio-hydrosystem and their interactions. PRECOS is part of the UMR G-EAU in CIRAD. The G-EAU unit focuses on the adaptive management of water and aquatic environments, and their uses.

His field of research contributes to the betterment of the world because it evaluates the economic value of ecosystem services so that this value is recognised by policymakers, and policies are adjusted to ensure their continuous provision in the future.

One of his research highlights was leading a French-funded project on the measurement of social capital in rural communities in Zimbabwe.

Another highlight was coordinating the socio-economic research within a European Union-funded project on sustainable intensification and climate smart agriculture in Zimbabwe. “We evaluated farmers preferences for sustainable agricultural technologies using choice experiments,” Dr Jourdain says.

Dr Jourdain warns that natural resources are in danger. “There is an urgent need to change policies and to engage in a just transition towards more sustainable use of the resources we live on.”

His advice to school learners and undergraduates who are interested in his field is to be persistent. “Becoming an expert in environmental economics should be considered as mastering a sport that requires several competencies: basic economics, econometrics and understanding environmental systems to be able to engage other disciplines.”

In his spare time, he enjoys reading, especially history books.