♦ Policy and governance dimensions of global agricultural supply chains (Mar 2018 – )
This project, executed within the context of TRASE (a platform to ensure transparency and sustainability in global agricultural supply chains, visit trase.earth), is an interdisciplinary effort to study policy and governance efforts to make the value chains of some of the most relevant global agricultural commodities (e.g. soy, palm oil, beef) more sustainable.
Partners: Chalmers University of Technology, Stockholm Environment Institute, Global Canopy, Université Catholique de Louvain, Centre for Development Research (University of Bonn).
♦ Sustainable Value Chain Development for Peri-Urban Communities in Brazil (Feb 2016 – )
This project has aimed to promote bottom-up development of sustainable value chains as a multipurpose strategy for peri-urban communities in Brazil. Focused on the periphery of Feira de Santana (Bahia, Brazil), it attempts to integrate urban and rural studies. Using available resources from the local agrobiodiversity, these communities may face the combined challenges of climate change adaptation, urban sprawl and poverty via inclusive sustainable development strategies and a socially-minded approach to bioeconomy.
Partners: The Association of Small Farmers of Feira de Santana.
♦ REDD+ Results-Based Finance, funded by NORAD (Feb 2014 – Oct 2015)
This project analyzed UNFCCC negotiations on REDD+ and the AFOLU sector (Agriculture, Forests and Other Land Use) in the context of the new climate agreement. I, in particular, examined policy coherence and “policy instrument mixes” adopted for REDD+ implementation under a landscape approach in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico. The project focused specially on the promotion of “non-carbon benefits” and sustainable local development in conjunction with forest conservation.
Partners: The REDD@WUR Network (across Wageningen), and the WWF Forest and Climate Programme.
♦ Climate-Smart Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa, NORAD (Jan 2013 – Dec 2014)
This consisted of the comparative analysis of policy frameworks and practices for climate-smart agriculture across 15 Eastern and Southern African countries. I coordinated and oversaw the work of local consultants for each of our cases (Botswana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe). We examined: policy coherence; issues of access, equity and stakeholder participation (including gender dimensions); and rooms for South-South, North-South and triangular collaboration on sustainable agriculture.
Partners: The Earth System Governance Project; the UNDP Rio+ Centre; and the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN, Pretoria-based network across 20 African countries).
♦ Community-Based Management Strategies for Biocultural Diversity Conservation – COMBIOSERVE, EU 7th Framework (Mar 2013 – Feb 2014)
This project studied strategies for “biocultural” conservation on indigenous peoples’ lands in Bolivia, Brazil and Mexico. My work was to do fieldwork and analyze the case of the Pataxó indigenous people and their lands in northeast Brazil. I also assessed its multi-level governance setting within Brazil and the agency strategies of indigenous peoples and other actors as policy entrepreneurs in that context.
Partners: The State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS); and the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. (These were the partners I worked directly with; others were involved in different working packages of the project.)
♦ The Politics of Biofuel Governance and Emerging Green Economies (Sep 2008 – Apr 2014)
This was my own PhD research project, where I assessed the social, political and various institutional dimensions of “green economy” promotion, taking biofuels as an example and Brazil, India and Indonesia as case studies. I analysed the fledgling efforts at renewable energy and “green economy” governance at the international level as well as the institutional architectures for sustainable development, agency and policy entrepreneurship, and social equity dimensions in the context of selected case studies (Brazil, India, and Indonesia).
Partners: Own PhD project at Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM), VU University Amsterdam.
♦ Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation through Alternative Land-uses in Rainforests of the Tropics – REDD-ALERT, EU 7th Framework (Apr 2011 – Sep 2011)
This project assessed deforestation drivers, forest protection policies and room for effective REDD+ actions in Cameroon, Indonesia, Peru and Vietnam. I was responsible for the Indonesia case study, and conducted fieldwork together with local partners. Our working package examined the policy and governance dimensions of forest protection in face of (domestic and global) drivers of deforestation. Lessons were then extracted for REDD+ implementation in the country.
Partners: The World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF); and the Indonesian Soil Research Institute.
♦ Sustainable Food Security in the Globalized Era (Sep 2006 – Apr 2008)
This was my Master’s research project, where I analyzed the concept of food security vis-a-vis that of sustainability and compared case studies in Canada and Brazil for the promotion of sustainable food systems.
Partners: Own Master’s research project, Dept. of Environment and Resource Studies, University of Waterloo (Canada).