Changes in Commons Regimes and Collective Environmental Governance

We are interested in looking at how local, Indigenous, and traditional communities self-organize to manage the common good of their territories and the impacts on the land of these actions.

Youth, Land, Territory

A major current focus of the biocultural landscapes lab is the role of youth as the next generation of land managers and environmental stewards in community-based settings.

Current Projects on this Theme

Tejiendo Katumare: Youth it or Lose it

Jim is collaborating with Tropenbos International and the Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal on the Youth it or Lose it program to support youth engagement and empowerment in Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities in the Amazon Region. Read the Youth it or Lose it Manifesto developed by youth from Bolivia, Suriname, and Colombia who since 2022 collaborate to protect the Amazon.

Youth in Community Forestry

As part of the Future of Forest Work (FoFW) project, we started and continue to have conversations with youth from rural Oaxaca, Mexico. We are interested in learning about youth's aspirations, connections, and ideas related to community, forests, and engagement. Our work invites to reflect on the differentiated nature of contemporary youth-community-forest linkages, and the potential for youth to shape local forest futures. Read more about our work here. 

Youth and Territorial Governance

Drawing on insights from collaborative research with the Indigenous Territory of Lomerío (ITL) and the Instituto Boliviano de Investigación Forestal, we explore the roles that youth play in territorial governance, and their perceptions of current and novel engagement strategies. Read more about our work here. 

Future of Forest Work - Peru

Youth-led Environmental Stewardship

Future of Forest Work - Bolivia

Human Migration and the Environment

Another major focus for the bioculturalandscapes lab has been, and continues to be, an exploration about human migration and mobility as drivers of demographic and cultural change in Indigenous and local communities.

Current Projects on this Theme

Farmers' rural-rural migration in Ghana

Traditional ecological knowledge has received global recognition for the role it can play in environmental sustainability efforts. However, research on TEK has rarely considered how mobility and migration as a critical social phenomenon in rural areas impact and shape the relevance, maintenance, and use of TEK in contemporary contexts. Using ethnographic research Ph.D. Candidate, Abu, explores the relationship between TEK and migration, specifically rural-rural migration, in Ghana, a sub-Saharan African (SSA) country where agriculture serves as an engine of local economy and livelihood.

Processes of rural revitalization

Building on empirical work in Oaxaca, Mexico, our lab works to identify how out-migration might impact rural communities. In 2019, Jim, Dan Klooster, and Jorge Hernández-Díaz, wrote the book Communities Surviving Migation.This book responds to a necessity for more detailed analyses and reporting on migration and environmental change, especially in contexts where rural communities, livelihoods and biodiversity are interconnected.