I have three broad research projects:

My work on Grassroots Global Governance provides a theoretical framework for understanding new global governance structures that have emerged in the wake of states’ failure to adequately address problems like deforestation, poverty, disease, and climate change through multilateral treaty agreements. It answers two questions. In the absence of global agreement to solve a global problem, why and how do things nonetheless get done locally, on the ground? And how do ideas regarding the best way to tackle global problems evolve? You can learn more here.

A second project analyzes new global governance structures created to institutionalize Earth Law (Rights of Nature) in order to alter the way we practice sustainable development and address climate change. It also documents the diffusion of legal provisions granting rights to nature and their role in challenging global norms regarding humans’ relationship to nature. You can learn more here.

A third set of projects relate to collaborative governance and ecological economics. I am part of an inter-disciplinary team developing an original dataset to analyze the effect of international conservation aid on tropical deforestation worldwide (click here for a video summarizing our results in Sub-Saharan Africa). This complements my research on innovative, experimentation institutions for collaboratively managing and financing the conservation of watershed and forest ecosystems.