Here you will find links to some of my research papers, reports, book chapters and journalism.

Journalism

• Livestock conversation missing from climate talks. ChinaDialogue. Read online.
• Will 30×30 reboot conservation or entrench old problems? ChinaDialogue. Read online.
• Will the UN food systems summit bring change? ChinaDialogue. Read online.
• Biologists warn ‘extinction denial’ is the latest anti-science conspiracy theory. Mongabay.com. Read online.
• Explainer: COP15, the biggest biodiversity conference in a decade. ChinaDialogue. Read online.
• How palm oil is certified ‘sustainable’. ChinaDialogue. Read online.
• Palm oil: The pros and cons of a controversial commodity. ChinaDialogue. Read online.
• Human wellbeing threatened by ‘unprecedented’ rate of biodiversity loss. ChinaDialogue. Read online.
• How poop could counter calls to resume commercial whaling. Scientific American. Read online.
• Scientists reveal yet another reason fig trees are titans of biodiversity. Mongabay.com. Read online.
• A new life for Ugandan barkcloth, a fabric made from fig trees. Atlas Obscura. Read online.
• The trees of life that became colonial India’s agents of death. The Wire. Read online.
• Awe may be a forest’s least known gift. Earth Island Journal. Read online.
• Will the bird that dodged a bullet pay the price of peace? Mongabay.com. Read online
• Life and death and the jaguars of the mind. Mongabay.com. Read online
• The tree that shaped history. BBC Earth Read online
• Tree of life: How figs built the world and will help save it. New Scientist. Read online
• The majesty and mystery of India’s sacred banyan trees. Newsweek. Read online
• The human butterfly. BBC Earth magazine. Read online.
• Can living fig-tree bridges save lives in a changing climate? Thomson Reuters Read online
• Biodiversity talks end with slew of announcements. ChinaDialogue. Read online.
• The near-magical properties of fig trees. Scientific American. Read online
• Dying to save the world. Ensia.com Read online
• Getting the balance wrong. The Guardian. Read online
• Science Journalism: Fighting a reporting battle. Nature 443: 392-393. Read online.
• The God Pill – Hallucinogens induce lasting spiritual highs in the religious. The Economist. Read online.
• Chinese Science – Faking it. The Economist. Read online.
• Oman’s rose gardens. In Dry: Life without water (eds. E. Masood & D. Schaffer). Harvard University Press. Available from Amazon.com.
• Archive of stories written for SciDev.Net — 2004-2007. Read online.
• Appetite for destruction. The Ecologist. Read online.

Research, briefing papers, etc.

• Shanahan, M. et al. 2021. Regional assessment of forest education in Asia and the Pacific. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. [Download PDF]
• Shanahan, M. et al. 2014. Climate Change in Africa: A Guidebook for Journalists. UNESCO. [Download English PDF]. [Download French PDF].
• Shanahan, M. 2013.  Media perceptions and portrayals of pastoralists in Kenya, India and China. Gatekeepers 154. [Read abstract] [Download PDF].
• Shanahan, M. 2013.  Following the herd: why pastoralism needs better media coverage. IIED briefing paper. [Read abstract] [Download PDF].
• Shanahan, M. 2012. Climate change mapped. Book review (of The Atlas of Climate Change by Kirstin Dow and Thomas Downing). Frontiers of Biogeography 4.2, 64-65. [Read online].
• Shanahan, M. 2012. Large dams: sharing the water, sharing the benefits. International Water Power and Dam Construction. July 2012. [Download PDF]
• Shanahan, M. 2011. Why the Media Matters in a Warming World: A guide for policymakers in the global South. A Climate Change Media Partnership briefing paper. Download PDF. Read Abstract. [French translation] [Chinese translation]
• Shanahan, M. 2009. Time to Adapt? Media coverage of climate change in non-industrialised countries. Chapter 12 in Climate Change and the Media. Edited by Tammy Boyce & Justin Lewis. Peter Lang Publishing. Download PDF. Check Google Scholar for citations.
• Shanahan, M. 2009. COP15 for journalists: a guide to the UN climate change summit. An IIED briefing. Download PDF. Read Abstract.
• Shanahan, M. 2008. Entangled in the Web of Life: Biodiversity and the media. An IIED briefing. International Institute for Environment and Development. Download PDF. Read Abstract.
• Shanahan, M. 2007. Talking about a Revolution: Climate change and the media. An IIED briefing. International Institute for Environment and Development. Download PDF. Read Abstract. Check Google Scholar for citations. [French translation] [Spanish translation]
• Shanahan, M. 2006. Science Journalism: Fighting a reporting battle. Nature 443: 392-393. Read online.
• Harrison, R. D. & Shanahan, M. 2005. Seventy-seven ways to be a fig: An overview of a diverse assemblage of figs in Borneo. Pages 111-127 in D. W. Roubik, S. Sakai, and A. A. Hamid (eds). Pollination Ecology and the Rain Forest Canopy: Sarawak Studies. Springer Verlang, New York.
• Shanahan, M. Thornton, C., Trent, S. & Williams, J. 2003. Smash & Grab: Conflict, Corruption and Human Rights Abuses in the Shrimp Farming Industry. Environmental Justice Foundation, London, UK. Download PDF. Check Google Scholar for citations.
• Shanahan, M. & Debski, I. 2002. Vertebrates of Lambir Hills National Park, Sarawak, Malayan Nature Journal 56: 103-118.
• Shanahan, M., So, S., Compton, S. & Corlett, R. 2001. Fig-eating by vertebrate frugivores: a global review. Biological Reviews 76: 529–572. Download PDF. Read Abstract. Check Google Scholar for citations.
• Shanahan, M., Harrison, R. D., Yamuna, R., Boen, W. & Thornton, I. W. B. 2001. Colonization of an island volcano, Long Island, Papua New Guinea, and an emergent island, Motmot, in its caldera lake. V. Colonization by figs (Ficus spp.), their dispersers and pollinators. Journal of Biogeography 28: 1365–1377. Download PDF. Read Abstract. Check Google Scholar for citations.
• Shanahan, M. & Compton, S. 2001. Vertical stratification of figs and fig-eaters in a Bornean lowland rain forest: how is the canopy different? Plant Ecology 153: 121-132. Read Abstract. Check Google Scholar for citations.
• Shanahan, M., Harrison, R. D., Hart, S. Storey, M. and Allman-Ward, P. 2001. Vertebrate fauna of the recently gazetted Pulong Tau National Park, Sarawak: Findings of a Malaysian Nature Society Expedition. Malayan Nature Journal 54: 329-340.
• Shanahan, M. & Compton. S. 2000. Fig-eating by Bornean treeshrews: evidence for a role as seed dispersers. Biotropica 32: 759-764. Read Abstract. Check Google Scholar for citations.
• Shanahan, M. 2000. Ficus seed dispersal guilds: ecology, evolution and conservation implications. PhD Thesis. University of Leeds. Download PDF.
• Harrison, R. D. & Shanahan M. 1998. Malaysian Nature Society 1998 Expedition to the proposed Pulong Tau National Park Sarawak, Malaysia. Malaysian Nature Society, Miri Branch, Miri, Sarawak. Download PDF.
• Shanahan. M. 1994. The effects of dominance, kinship and sexual state on the grooming behaviour of Black Macaques (Macaca nigra). Not a publication but my undergraduate research project at University of Leeds. Download PDF.