Owen is a professor of ecology at the University of Oxford in the UK. His research team studies the impacts of environmental change on plant and animal communities, particularly in tropical forests, and the resulting effects on ecosystem services. One of his main objectives is to develop landscape-scale solutions to maintain biodiversity and the livelihoods of local communities. Owen first worked in the Comoros in the 1990s, studying the islands' endemic butterflies. More recently, he has provided strategic and technical advice to Dahari on mapping and monitoring biodiversity and forests, helping to shape conservation priorities.