Gary Tabor
Professor of Practice, Natural Resources and the Environment
Gary M. Tabor is an ecologist and wildlife veterinarian. He is the Founder and President of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation (www.largelandscapes.org) - a support organization for large-scale conservation efforts and the hub of science, policy and practice on ecological connectivity conservation. Gary is Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas' Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group which connects 1300 scientists across 135 countries. Gary has worked on behalf of large landscape conservation internationally for over 40 years on every continent except Antarctica including 12 years as a conservation funder for Wilburforce, Kendall, Dodge and Kann Rasmussen Foundations.
Gary’s conservation achievements include the establishment of Kibale National Park in Uganda; the establishment of the World Bank’s Mountain Gorilla Conservation Trust in Uganda; co-founding the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative in US and Canada; pioneering the field of Conservation Medicine; co-founding Patagonia Company’s Freedom to Roam wildlife corridor campaign; co-founding the Heart of the Rockies land trust collaborative; co-founding the Network for Landscape Conservation and co-founding the Australia Environmental Grantmakers Network.
He has several academic advisory and board affiliations: Board of Advisors of the Global Health Institute at University of Wisconsin Madison, Board of Advisors for the Salazar Center for North American Conservation at Colorado State University, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is a member of the Conservation Committee of the National Aquarium in Baltimore and serves on the board of Bush Heritage Australia's US Board – a land trust that manages 1% of all lands in Australia.
Education
- BSc Cornell – Ecology and Systematics
- VMD UPenn – Wildlife Veterinary Medicine
- MES Yale – Conservation Biology
Recent Research
My research and my career focus on advancing the science, policy, and practice of large-scale conservation through ecological connectivity and defragmentation approaches. My work spans ecology and health and includes efforts in designing and implementing the connectivity goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework (30x30), addressing fragmentation threats through road ecology and wildlife corridor strategies, creating ecological networks of protected and restored areas, and examining ecological aspects of pathogen spillover through habitat fragmentation.
Awards & Honors
Gary is a recipient of the Australian American Fulbright Professional Scholar Award in Climate Change and Clean Energy, the Henry Luce Scholar Award, and the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks’ Superintendents’ Award.
Gary M. Tabor is an ecologist and wildlife veterinarian. He is the Founder and President of the Center for Large Landscape Conservation (www.largelandscapes.org) - a support organization for large-scale conservation efforts and the hub of science, policy and practice on ecological connectivity conservation. Gary is Chair of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas' Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group which connects 1300 scientists across 135 countries. Gary has worked on behalf of large landscape conservation internationally for over 40 years on every continent except Antarctica including 12 years as a conservation funder for Wilburforce, Kendall, Dodge and Kann Rasmussen Foundations.
Gary’s conservation achievements include the establishment of Kibale National Park in Uganda; the establishment of the World Bank’s Mountain Gorilla Conservation Trust in Uganda; co-founding the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative in US and Canada; pioneering the field of Conservation Medicine; co-founding Patagonia Company’s Freedom to Roam wildlife corridor campaign; co-founding the Heart of the Rockies land trust collaborative; co-founding the Network for Landscape Conservation and co-founding the Australia Environmental Grantmakers Network.
He has several academic advisory and board affiliations: Board of Advisors of the Global Health Institute at University of Wisconsin Madison, Board of Advisors for the Salazar Center for North American Conservation at Colorado State University, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is a member of the Conservation Committee of the National Aquarium in Baltimore and serves on the board of Bush Heritage Australia's US Board – a land trust that manages 1% of all lands in Australia.
- Plowright, R. K., J. K. Reaser, H. Locke, S. J. Woodley, J. A. Patz, D. Becker, G. Oppler, P. Hudson, and G. M. Tabor. 2021. Land use-induced spillover: a call to action to safeguard environmental, animal, and human health. The Lancet Planetary Health.
- Hilty, J., Worboys, G. L., Keeley, A., Woodley, S., Lausche, B., Locke, H., ... & Tabor, G. M. (2020). Guidelines for conserving connectivity through ecological networks and corridors. IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature.
- Belote, R.T., Beier, P., Creech, T., Wurtzebach, Z. and Tabor, G., 2019. A Framework for Developing Connectivity Targets and Indicators to Guide Global Conservation Efforts. BioScience.
- Keeley, A.T.H., Beier, P., Creech, T., Jones, K., Jongman, R., Stonecipher, G. and Tabor, G.M., 2019. Thirty years of connectivity conservation planning: an assessment of factors influencing plan implementation. Environmental Research Letters. 30 Sept.
- Noss, R.F., A. Dobson, R. Baldwin, P. Beier, D. DellaSala, J. Francis, H. Locke, K. Nowak, R.R. Lopez, C. Reining, S. Trombulak, and G. M. Tabor. 2012. Bolder thinking for conservation. Conservation Biology.26:1-4.
- Patz, J.A., P. Daszak, G.M. Tabor et al. 2004. Unhealthy Landscapes: Policy Recommendations on Land Use Change and Disease Emergence. Env. Health Perspectives. NIEHS Vol. 112:10 1092-1098
- Aguirre, A. A., R. S. Ostfeld, G. M. Tabor, C. A. House and M. C. Pearl (eds.). 2002. Conservation Medicine: Ecological Health in Practice. Oxford University Press, New York, 407 pp.
Contact Information
Fernow Hall 216
Ithaca, NY 14853
Gary in the news
News
Six projects led by Cornell and The Nature Conservancy researchers have been awarded grants from Cornell Atkinson.
- Cornell Atkinson
- Biodiversity
- Climate Change