Susanna Hecht

Dr Hecht’s research focuses on political ecology but her results have major implications for climate change adaptation, mitigation and longer term rethinking of longer term resilience strategies. Her research on deforestation policy and the tropical livestock sector has had important impact for changing the incentive patterns that resulted in rampant deforestation in the 1980s. Dr Hecht’s interest in alternatives to deforestation involves engagement in the analytics of non timber forest products and their development, including extractive reserves, which now cover more than 10 million Ha in the Amazon Basin. Her engagement with the soy sector has further engaged conservation landscapes and practices within industrial agricultural production systems. Her research on agroforestry systems has emphasized women’s roles in landscape management.

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