I am a political ecologist building knowledge on the environmental and wellbeing outcomes of climate change and biodiversity conservation policies and producing scientific findings that inform global policies for sustainable land use. My research, which has involved fieldwork in Mexico, Tanzania, Mexico and Spain, draws on data from multiple levels, from multi-actor views gathered ethnographically to secondary information collected for quantitative assessments.
I got my PhD in International Development from the School of Global Development, University of East Anglia (2005). Subsequently, I worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, and as a part-time lecturer at the Department of Land Economy, University of Cambridge (2009-2011). In 2011, I joined the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, first as a ‘Ramón y Cajal’ research fellow (2011-2015), benefiting also from a Marie Curie Career Integration grant; subsequently as a ‘distinguished’ senior researcher (2016-2020), and currently as an ICREA Research Professor. Over the past few years, I have served as Scientific and Deputy Director of the Institute, where I lead the Laboratory for the Analysis of Socio-Ecological Systems in a Global World (LASEG).
I am a subject editor of the journal Ecology and Society and I have sat in the editorial boards of the journals Geoforum, Global Environmental Change and the Journal of Peasant Studies. I am a member of the International Society for Ecological Economics, the International Association for the Study of the Commons, and the Association of American Geographers. I co-authored the ‘Sustainable Development and Equity’ and ‘Agriculture, Forestry and Land-Use’ chapters of the 5th Assessment Report of Working Group III (Mitigation) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
When I’m not focused on work or enjoying the great company of my two energetic children, I am often on a bike to relax, wander, and meditate. I have participated in several mountain/gravel bike multi-stage competitions, such as the Cape-Epic (2019) and the Cat700 (2024, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019), the Catalonia Bike Race (2018), the Transpyr (2017) and the Titan Desert (2016), among other less strenuous endeavours. When inspiration thrives, I also write amateur poetry (Yamana, 2011).