Fellow's Profile
Catrina Ollis
Fellow's Profile
Catrina Ollis
From the Andes to the Atlantic: Restoring Britain’s Lost Rainforests
Fellowship
- Themes
- Focus
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Conserving and regenerating our vanishing temperate rainforests
- Countries
- Fellowship year
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2026
- Locality
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South East
Contact
Biography
I am an MSc student in Environmental Sciences at the University of Geneva, where I also work as a research assistant on a project promoting biodiversity and reducing pesticide dependence in agricultural landscapes. My background spans conservation fieldwork, environmental advocacy, and science communication across Europe and Australia.
My Fellowship focuses on the conservation and regeneration of temperate rainforests, one of the world's rarest and most threatened ecosystems, of which the UK holds the most significant remaining fragments in Europe. Having spent years exploring these forests across Scotland and Australia, I know how easy it is to walk through one of these habitats without realising it. Ancient and irreplaceable, they remain deeply overlooked, with many people in the UK having no idea that we are, in fact, a rainforest nation.
I will travel to Chile to learn from their success in conserving and regenerating the Valdivian rainforest, focusing on the role of indigenous communities, conservation organisations, and policymakers in driving its recovery, before returning to the UK with the hope of advancing restoration efforts.
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
