William "Bill" M. Adams (born 1955) is a British geographer. He is the Claudio Segré professor of conservation and development at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.^[1][2] He was previously professor of Conservation and Development in the Department of Geography at the University of Cambridge.^[3]

Adams studied geography and graduated with a B.A. from the University of Cambridge, followed by an M.Sc. in conservation, from the University College London. He obtained a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge. He has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Stockholm, and the Royal Geographical Society's Busk Medal in 2004.^[4][5]

Bill Adams is a member of the Political Ecology group. He explores the ideas behind conservation initiatives and resource management, and the implications of these ideas in practice.^[6]

His research fields are:

• Conservation of landscapes that have been heavily modified by human influences (Sahel, urban environment)
• the political ecology of nature conservation at the landscape level
• the institutional large-scale ecological restoration of ecosystems
• Ecosystem services and protection concepts

• Adams (2003): Beyond Extinction: The Story of Conservation. Kogan Page.
• Adams (2003): Future Nature: a vision for conservation. Revised edition, Earthscan.
• Adams and Mulligan (2003): Decolonizing Nature: strategies for conservation a postcolonial era. Earthscan / James & James.
• Adams (2008): Conservation. Routledge.
• Adams (2009): Green Development: environment and sustainability in a developing world. 3rd edition, Routledge.
• Leader-Williams, Adams and Smith (2010): Trade-offs in Conservation. Wiley-Blackwell.