Sustainability Leadership Fellow Cohort: 2016-2017

Ph.D. Student, Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources

Research Summary: International development programs are designed to be “win-win” – improving both environmental and social factors – however many of the social outcomes such as environmental knowledge, civic engagement, and social networks are not evaluated. These social outcomes have feedbacks for resilience to climate change. I examine community-based water monitoring (CBWM), which trains community members to collect and analyze water quality, and payment for watershed services (PSW) which pays landowners for forest conservation to improve water quality. Looking at participation in these two programs, this research gets at how development programs can be designed and implemented to enhance social outcomes and adaptive capacity.