Dr. Fitalew Taye serves as an Adjunct Research Fellow in the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, Faculty of Science, at the University of Western Australia. An experienced environmental economist previously affiliated with the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy, he contributed to the Coastal Blue Carbon project led by Deakin University and funded by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. In this capacity, he undertook project-level environmental economic accounting for wetland restoration in two case study areas. Prior to this, Taye held a postdoctoral research fellowship at Griffith Business School, Griffith University, where he conducted studies on the valuation of forest ecosystem services and community preferences for conservation of tropical primary forests using payments for ecosystem services schemes. He also completed a case study assessing adoption of climate-smart technologies in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in collaboration with researchers from Griffith University and the Woodwell Climate Research Center, USA. His earlier roles include PhD Fellow at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Lecturer in the Department of Economics at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia.

Taye's research interests include non-market valuation, discrete choice modelling, benefit-cost analysis, valuation of terrestrial and marine ecosystem services, natural capital accounting, natural climate solutions, payments for ecosystem services, and climate change and rural livelihoods. Key publications encompass 'Evaluating the costs of primary forest conservation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, implications for policy and practice' (Journal of Environmental Management, 2024, with Bush, Fleming, Samndong), 'The economic values of global forest ecosystem services: A meta-analysis' (Ecological Economics, 2021, with Folkersen, Fleming et al., cited 237 times), 'Childhood experience in forest recreation practices: Evidence from nine European countries' (Urban Forestry and Urban Greening, 2019, with Taye, Abildtrup et al.), 'Preferences for the future of the Southport Spit: evidence from a choice experiment' (Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 2020, with Graham, Fleming, Agimass, Smart), and 'Accounting for environmental attitude to explain variations in willingness to pay for forest ecosystem services using the new environmental paradigm' (Journal of Environmental Economics and Policy, 2018, with Taye, Vedel, Jacobsen). His scholarship demonstrates impact through applications of stated preference methods in environmental policy analysis.

Professional Email: fitalew.taye@uwa.edu.au