First given in 2001, the Slawson Awards are supported by Society Fellows Paul and Mary Slawson. The awards support geographical fieldwork involving development issues with a high social and economic value.
Applicants must be Fellows, Postgraduate Fellows or ordinary members of the Society.
Deadline: 22 February
Apply now
Please read the guidelines and send your completed application by email to grants@rgs.org.
Download application guidelines
Stephanie Brittain (University of Oxford). 'Robust Wildlife Population Monitoring under Challenging Conditions'
Many local people in rural Central Africa rely on bushmeat for food and livelihoods. Yet, current levels of hunting are often unsustainable and a problem for both conservation and local people. Furthermore, robust and cost effective methods to gather information on species status, distribution and hunting rates are often lacking. This research develops a method to allow more robust and cost-effective monitoring of mammals in forest environments and at large spatial scales.
Alex Ma (University College London). ‘The Making of a New Asian Tiger?: Myanma Labour Migration to Singapore, and Remittance-led Development’
This study looks at Myanmar labour migration to Singapore, examining the migration and remittance practices of migrant workers and how this impacts recipient households. Using survey and interview data, the study situates migrant behaviours in everyday experiences to challenge economic precepts of rational migration-remittance behaviours. The study aims to explain and account for remittance-development outcomes as premised on a range of structural, motivational, emotional, and experiential factors that are also gendered and temporally dynamic.
Dominic Rowland (SOAS). 'From forest foods to supermarkets: changing diets, nutrition and food environments resulting from oil palm driven deforestation, West Kalimantan'
This study explores the nutritional implications of an agrarian transition driven by oil palm expansion and deforestation in West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. The forested landscape of the Kapuas Hulu Regency is rapidly changing due to the transition from forest-based agriculture (consisting of swidden agriculture and agroforestry, supplemented with wild forest foods) to a form of contract farming for oil palm. The study takes as its conceptual framework work conducted in the fields of agriculture and nutrition, ethnobotany and public health nutrition – as well as drawing on debates from environmental science and agrarian studies.
Slawson Award recipients 2001-2016 (PDF)