Prof.James Blignaut is an ecological and environmental resource economist who started his career in 1991 at the South African Reserve Bank. After obtaining his doctoral degree in 1995 he joined the Department of Economics, University of Pretoria on 1 January 1996. In 1999 he became professor. He has published more than 90 papers in local and international accredited journals, authored or co-authored 28 chapters in books, and presented more than 100 papers at local and international conferences as well as seminars and invited lectures and completed more than 200 technical (funded) reports. James is the former editor-in-chief of the South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences, a journal that received its Thompson ISI accreditation status under his editorship, and is either a currently or former associate editor of Energy Economics, Conservation letters, Water Resources Research and the South African Journal of Wildlife Research. He is the lead editor of a 2004-book, Sustainable Options: Development lessons from applied environmental economics in South Africa and co-editor of an Island Press book (2007) entitled Restoring Natural Capital: Science, Business and Practise.

His area of interest are Environmental Resource Economics And Development Economics.