Peter Vandergeest
Department of Geography, York University
Principal Investigator
Website • Publications • Blog
Peter Vandergeest is a professor in the Department of Geography at York University. He has been doing research in Southeast Asia on agrarian change, forestry, and aquaculture for 30 years. As the project’s Principal Investigator, he is coordinating the research, and the creation of a database to include relevant projects and programs. He is particularly concerned with assessing questions of equity and its effects on how marginalized peoples are able to access resources. He will use a comparative analysis of projects and programs that are mobilizing monetary valuations and market mechanisms in resource governance. At the moment, he is working on alternative ways of framing the issue of so-called slave labour and human trafficking in the fisheries in Southeast Asia, and examining the limits of buyer-based pressure in improving the situation of fisheries workers in the region.
Melissa Marschke
School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa
Co-Investigator
Website • Publications • Blog
Melissa Marschke is an Associate Professor at the School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa (Canada). Melissa’s research interests are in the broad area of human-environment relations, with a particular interest in resource governance (i.e. community based management, adaptive co-management, certification), livelihood transitions and social-ecological change. Within the NDEG project she is interested in unpacking labour dynamics within mainland Southeast Asia’s fisheries, including the complex interplay of economic migration, human trafficking and ecological decline. Melissa will also continue to assess fisheries governance interventions, with a particular interest in small-scale fisheries.
Robin Roth
Department of Geography, York University
Co-Investigator
Publications
Robin Roth is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at York University. Her research focuses on the social aspects of forestry conservation in both Canada and Southeast Asia. For this project, she will continue her research and investigate market-orientated forest conservation and privatized governance regimes. She also intends to explore eco-tourism, shade coffee production, and payment for ecosystem services primarily in Thailand.
Keith Barney
Resources, Environment and Development Group, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
Collaborator
Website • Publications
Keith Barney is Lecturer in the Resources, Environment and Development Group at the Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University. He has extensively researched and published articles concerning sustainable forestry, land management, resource tenure, forest markets, and sustainable trading issues in Southeast Asia. He has also conducted numerous cooperative policy-based research studies with organizations such as Forest Trends, Rights and Resources Initiative, and the Centre for International Forestry Research. He will contribute the forestry and plantation components of the project.
Simon Bush
Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University
Collaborator
Website • Publications • Personal website
Simon Bush is Associate Professor in the Environmental Policy Group at Wageningen University. His research focuses on the political ecology of fishery management, and on aquaculture certification in coastal communities in Southeast Asia. He contributes to the fisheries and aquaculture components of the NDEG project.
Derek Hall
Department of Political Science, Wilfrid Laurier University
Collaborator
Website • Publications
Derek Hall is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Wilfried Laurier University. His past research has concerned aquaculture and plantations in Southeast Asia, as well as broader questions around land and agrarian transitions. For the project, Professor Hall will contribute his expertise on the political and economic affairs of aquaculture certification in the region, and assist with the project’s comparative analyses components.
Chusak Wittayapak
Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University
Collaborator
Publications
Chusak Wittayapak teaches as a university lecturer at Thailand’s Chiang Mai University within the faculty of Social Science. Professor Wittayapak’s scholarly research has focused on forestry conservation, community forestry, agrarian transformation, tourism and development and more recently, Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes in Thailand. His contribution to this research will include work on Payments for Ecosystems Services programs, as well as on forestry policy more broadly.
Xing Lyu
Greater Mekong Sub-region Study Centre, Yunnan University
Collaborator
Website • Publications
Xing Lyu is Associate Professor and Director of the Great Mekong Sub-region Study Centre at Yunnan University. His past research focused on developing community-based conservation practices and conceptualizing participatory social and community forestry methods in China. His current research focuses on the linkages between policy and natural resource management in China; specifically concerning water governance issues in the Mekong River region. He will contribute to the forestry/plantation component of the project, with specific attention to Yunnan, and to the activities of China-based actors in Southeast Asia.