Senior Researcher in Integrative Geography at the University of Bern. His current research focuses on agroecological transitions in sub-Saharan Africa with a critical perspective and an emphasis on social justice aspects. His research has the overall objective of integrating social-ecological thinking and the idea of justice. This includes conceptual and empirical work looking at environmental justice issues in telecoupled social-ecological systems, the relevance of cognitive justice in environmental governance and ecosystem management, and resilience justice in relation with climate change, natural resource governance and rural smallholders in the Global South. His main research areas are in Latin America (Bolivia, Cuba, Brazil) and in sub-Sahran Africa (Senegal, Kenya).

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Mountain Regions, Latin America, Africa

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Jean Carlo Rodriguez is an environmental-social scientist interested in environmental change, environmental governance and equity. At the Alexander von Humboldt Institute in Colombia and the Landbouw Economisch Instituut (LEI) in the Netherlands, he gathered significant experience in designing and implementing NbS to protect ecosystems and biodiversity for the provision of watershed ecosystem services. During his Ph.D. on the political ecology of water, he analyzed how power asymmetries and governance aspects influenced the socio-ecological outcomes of Payment for Ecosystem Services in Latinamerica. After this, he (co-)led several research groups at DIE focusing on the equity aspects of NbS for climate mitigation and adaptation in Latinamerica. Through these engagements, he has recognized the potential of rights-based and is interested in understanding its implications for people and nature.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Latinamerica and Central Asia

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Keywords: Climate Change Adaptation, Climate Politics, Degrowth, Ecological Economics, Inter-and Transdisciplinary Research Methods, Political Ecology, Postcolonialism, Socio-Ecological Transformation

Amit Ambekar is a climate and sustainability practitioner and doctoral researcher in Human Geography at Kiel University. His doctoral research examines proximity, responsibility and environmental justice in climate governance, with a particular focus on how institutional and spatial arrangements shape the attribution of responsibility and accountability. He is developing the concept of “Proximity Collapse” to understand how responsibility can become difficult to identify and enforce when authority, consequences and governance mechanisms are distributed across different territories, scales, places and networks. His empirical research is beginning with water governance in India, with a possible comparative European dimension. Alongside his doctoral work, Amit works professionally across climate governance, climate adaptation, water, landscape restoration and sustainability strategy in India, combining applied policy and institutional experience with academic research.

Country/Region of interest/research focus: India, with comparative interest in European climate and water governance

Links: amitambekar.substack.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/amit-ambekar-06276a18/

{:en}Judith Bopp is a human geographer with a particular interest in organic farming practices and the interrelations among food, health, and ecology. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC). In her research project, “Fostering the Health–Nutrition–Ecology Nexus: Organic Farming Practices and Household Resilience in Rural Thailand,” she investigates how rural smallholder households strengthen their resilience to overlapping socioecological crises through the adoption of organic farming practices.

With a background in linguistics, she also has a strong interest in the field of ecolinguistics. Ecolinguistic analysis is used to identify ecologically destructive discourses and to help shape “eco-positive” narratives for more sustainable ways of living (see Ecolinguistics course).

Country/Region of interest/research focus: Thailand, Myanmar, Southern India

Latest publication: Local Notions of Alternative Practices: Organic Food Movements in Bangkok, Thailand and Chennai, India

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