My research aims to examine how different protected area governance strategies influence conflict arising at the interface of extractive industry and biodiversity conservation. I am especially interested in how the benefits and burdens of these conflicts are spread across different sectors of society in relation to gender, race, class, nationality, etc.
Madagascar, an island globally renowned for its biodiversity, species endemism, and high species extinction rates, recently enacted a threefold increase in terrestrial protected areas and is now also focused on expanding its marine protected area network. The current and planned expansion of marine protected areas provides an ideal opportunity in which to study how different conservation strategies achieve, or fail to achieve their goals, and how to best mitigate conflict arising between resource use and resource protection. My research focuses primarily on artisanal marine fisheries and specifically on how the stakeholders involved in different conservation strategies negotiate property rights, decision making, and enforcement.
My research approach draws largely on feminist geography and political ecology methodologies and the fields of conservation biology, international relations and gender studies.
