FORESTS NEWS

Anne M. Larson conducts research on multiple aspects of forest and landscape governance policy and institutions, including property rights, climate change, decentralization, indigenous territories and gender, from local to international scales. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Environmental Science from Stanford University and her PhD in 2001 from U.C. Berkeley in Wildland Resource Science, with an emphasis on resource policy and institutions. Her current work includes developing research strategies, projects and methodologies; fundraising; supervising and conducting research; writing and editing books, reports, article, briefs and more popular materials such as illustrated training manuals and flyers in indigenous languages; networking with policy-makers, NGOs and grassroots organizations for impact; and project management. She is a member of the council of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC, 2014-16) and represents CIFOR to the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). Before moving full time to CIFOR’s office in Lima, Peru, Anne lived in Nicaragua, where she did consultancies with multiple numerous organizations including GIZ, the Nicaraguan Forestry Institute (INAFOR), World Resources Institute (WRI), Ford Foundation, the Nitlapan Institute for Research and Development and the World Bank, among others. She has done both more traditional and action research, as well as supporting innovative efforts such as the design of a diploma course for indigenous communities and community leaders. Prior to obtaining her PhD, she worked as a journalist, activist and lobbyist. Current research priorities include opportunities and challenges for forest tenure reforms; women’s rights to land in communal forests; and multilevel governance, REDD+ and low emissions development. She coordinates fieldwork in Peru, Nicaragua, Mexico, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Vietnam.