Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2019-2020

Ph.D. Student, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics

Research Summary: In developing countries, rural households depend on agriculture and natural resource exploitation for their income, food, and nutrition. However, with prevalent climate shocks in terms of droughts or floods, farming becomes a precarious activity. The goal of my study is to understand the role played by forest extraction in insuring nutrition when there is a weather shock given its multiple uses (extraction of wild foods, and timber). In Africa, where farmers lack formal safety nets that lessen the impact of weather-related catastrophes, understanding the role that communal natural resources play is vital to protecting livelihoods and conservation of these resources.