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JNCC’s UK Country Liaison officers

© Amy Arnott, Alison Lee and Winter Dotto

General Overview

As the UK’s statutory adviser on nature, JNCC works across the four countries of the UK.  JNCC has a dedicated Science and Policy Liaison for each country to support and enhance JNCC’s engagement with the national governments, the country conservation bodies and other national organisations. Their work is focused on partnership building, horizon scanning, project development, and ensuring evidence informs policy and decision-making across the countries. The Liaisons:

  • Provide strategic engagement, collaboration and the delivery of scientific evidence, to support country policy goals and evidence needs. 
  • Raise awareness within JNCC of country priorities and emerging policy and legislation – to improve relationships and the relevance of JNCC’s work to each country.
  • Build and strengthen relationships and help to initiate or shape JNCC collaborations with the countries to maximise the value of JNCC’s support. 

Meet the team

Amy Arnott – Science and Evidence Liaison Officer (Northern Ireland)

Amy is the Northern Ireland Liaison Officer for JNCC based in Belfast, working closely with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) and its agency, the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) on future land management decisions and policy making. Amy is the project manager for the Balancing Land Use Needs in NI (BALUNNI) project.

Prior to commencing work at JNCC, Amy completed a PhD at Queen’s University Belfast on the effects of agri-environment schemes on invertebrate biodiversity.

Samuel MacNab – Science and Evidence Liaison Officer (Scotland)

Sam is the Scotland Liaison Officer for JNCC based in Edinburgh and works closely with Scottish Government and NatureScot. His current work areas include a strategic assessment of the UK protected areas network and facilitating the agreement of JNCC and NatureScot’s annual priorities for marine conservation advice. Prior to joining JNCC, Sam worked on negative emissions technologies in the Scottish Government’s Industrial Decarbonisation team and on setting legally-binding targets for the Environment Act at Defra’s Environmental Strategy Unit.

Leigh-Anne Bullough – Science and Evidence Liaison Officer (Wales)

Leigh-Anne is currently the Liaison Officer for Wales, based in North Wales, working with Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru (Natural Resources Wales) and Llywodraeth Cymru (Welsh Government). Her work includes development and advisory work on indicators for Wales’ statutory nature targets, as well as building collaborative programmes of work to support effective target implementation. Leigh-Anne holds an MSc in Conservation Science, where her research focused on illegal wildlife trade dynamics – implementing her strong interest in social science methods to support conservation outcomes. Prior to joining JNCC, she worked in international wildlife trade policy and was part of the UK delegation to the 2022 CITES Conference of the Parties.

Rachel Wade – Science and Evidence Liaison Officer (England)

Rachel is JNCC’s Liaison Officer for England, currently seconded from Natural England where she worked in the Natural Capital Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) programme to improve data availability and key stakeholder relationships. As England Liaison, Rachel acts as a key link between JNCC, Natural England and Defra, helping to connect scientific evidence, policy development and delivery to support nature recovery and environmental outcomes across England. Rachel's previous experience includes academic positions in ecology and earth science research, including a PhD in Palaeontology, and as a Commissioning Editor of Academic Textbooks.

 

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