Morphum Environmental graduate environmental scientist, Chloe Price has been awarded the Lucy Beatrice Moore Prize in Environmental Science for achieving the top grade on her Master of Science thesis.
The University of Auckland prize was established in 2005 to encourage the study of environmental science. Chloe says being awarded the prize has been an academic highlight.
“I’m honoured. I loved discovering that Lucy and I share a common passion for all things blue, green and living in between,” says Chloe.
Chloe completed her master’s degree on the investigation of stream biodiversity offsetting in Auckland and Wellington in just over 12 months. With global interest in the practices and policy of biodiversity offsetting, Chloe saw this as an opportunity to contribute towards growing research on the topic after discovering a persistent lack of evidence to support its use.
Chloe Price, assessing Duck Creek in Porirua for her thesis research.
Using an interdisciplinary approach, Chloe evaluated how development and environmental regulations drive and enable offsetting; then assessed stream ecological restoration (offset) success in-field. This was the first empirical analysis of biodiversity offsetting in Aotearoa.
“I’m pleased that my master’s can add to the very small but growing international body of evidence calling for improved practices and transparency regarding the use of offsetting,” says Chloe.
Chloe is currently using her research findings to complete a journal paper before moving on to develop a policy brief.
More then 12 months in the making, Chloe submits her thesis.
Chloe joined the Morphum Environmental team in 2019 as a graduate environmental scientist while completing her master’s. She enjoys working in a team that is passionate about achieving outcomes that put our planet and people first.
She believes that consulting can be a rocky world for an environmental activist to get into. “It’s the ‘coal front’ of environmental management in Aotearoa, where make or break decisions that directly affect the environment happen every day. I hope that, by working with the Morphum Environmental team, I can contribute to achieving real outcomes that help our cities head in a sustainable direction; where the natural environment is valued as an asset rather than a barrier to progress.”
Chloe hopes her research will contribute towards improved effects management practice in New Zealand and overseas to ensure that environmental regulation achieves its purpose of sustaining and protecting the natural environment in the face of ongoing development.