I am currently applying for a fully-funded PhD research position to explore how regenerative entrepreneurship can deliver biodiversity-positive outcomes while advancing Planetary Health and inclusive prosperity within planetary boundaries, with a focus on ecologically rich but economically marginalised regions of the Global South.

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I am particularly passionate about the intersection between entrepreneurship and biodiversity conservation; a field I believe remains critically underexplored in academic discourse. These questions have shaped not only my research focus, but also my professional and personal journey. They fuel my motivation to pursue a doctoral degree dedicated to rethinking entrepreneurship as a regenerative, place-based force for planetary health and economic transformation.​

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Across the Global South, biodiversity loss is accelerating despite decades of conservation and sustainability programmes. Conservation dominant paradigms continue to limit progress, like the Yellowstone model, which separates people from nature, and the Silicon Valley model, which prioritises growth over ecological integrity. These frameworks constrain our ability to imagine economic activity that restores and regenerates ecosystems. Although IPBES and Planetary Boundaries call for transformative change, cross-disciplinary integration remains limited: conservation science rarely engages entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial practice lacks ecological grounding. It is urgent to dismantle conventional conservation logics to reimagine conservation and entrepreneurship as allied disciplines.

 

Many entrepreneurs, even those working on sustainability, often feel disconnected from global biodiversity goals. Targets like 30x30 can seem like something only governments or big conservation NGOs can act on, reinforcing an old Yellowstone-style model that separates people from nature. At the same time, many conservationists have skepticism on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship because of real histories of land grabbing, exclusion, and market-based schemes that harmed communities. But these two worlds are much wider than their dominant narratives. Beyond outdated conservation and entrepreneurship models, there is a growing movement exploring new ways of thinking and acting, rooted in diverse knowledge systems, care, collaboration, justice, and postgrowth. Indigenous and rural communities already enact regenerative practices that remain largely undocumented, unsupported, and theoretically overlooked. These emerging approaches show that conservation and entrepreneurship can evolve together when freed from old assumptions.

 

My research seeks to address a core structural gap: the disconnect between real entrepreneurial practice in the Global South and conservation science paradigms. We urgently need models of entrepreneurship that genuinely regenerate ecosystems. To bridge this, my work examines four interlinked questions: how entrepreneurs’ motivations and contexts shape regenerative action; which ecosystem actors and institutional dynamics influence diffusion and scalability; what ecological, social, economic, and regulatory conditions enable regenerative entrepreneurship; and how to design credible evaluative frameworks that can measure, verify, and strengthen biodiversity-positive outcomes.

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If you’re interested in regenerative innovation/entrepreneurship, biodiversity conservation, or collaborative research in this space, I’d love to connect at iamyoudid@gmail.com