With more than 30 years’ experience working in government agencies, Des was the Principal Adviser on Biodiversity and Science with NatureScot, Scotland’s Nature Agency. He worked closely with the Scottish Government devising the Scottish Biodiversity Strategy 2022-2045, and its Delivery Plan.

Now a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow with the Environmental Research Institute at UHI North, West and Hebrides, his interests include the conservation ecology of north European shorebirds, upland ecosystems and science-policy biodiversity decision making. He is a member (and founder Chair for ten years) of the Technical Advisory Group on African and Eurasian raptors supporting the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), member of the Scottish Government’s Biodiversity Programme Advisory Group and the RBGE Scientific Advisory Committee, Specialty Chief Editor of the journal Frontiers in Bird Science. Bird Conservation and Management, and Vice President (and former Chair of the Board of Trustees) of the Field Studies Council.

With specialist interests in upland and arctic-alpine environments, publishing more than 15 books, he took his first degree at Paisley College (now University of West Scotland), PhD and DSc from the University of Nottingham, and hails from the small village of Culrain in Sutherland.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Management, in February 2024 he was elected the UN CMS COP-Appointed Councillor for Climate Change.