We work on the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources in tropical forest landscapes under transition. Lands use changes, livelihoods, sustainabilitiy, governance and participatory management are strong elements of our research.
We are engaged in collaborative research projects across the tropics,
- trying to understand change in tropical forest landscapes,
- representing complex social and ecological systems through participatory models and agent based simulation and
- fostering discussion and supporting collective decision making on natural resources management.
We develop models that merge local ecological knowledge and scientific expertise. We use games to explore possible futures of landscape changes with the stakeholders, and design with them theories of change.
We have several ongoing PhD and Postdoc research projects in Nepal, India, Madagascar, and Colombia on topics as diverse as shifting cultivation (India), sustainable hunting (Colombia) and deforestation and forest restoration modeling (Brazil & Scotland)
In addition to research, we develop training courses at ETH and beyond, on our approach of transdisciplinarity based on facilitation and participatory modelling.
