Principle Investigator:  Reem Hajjar

Reem is Associate Professor of Environmental Justice, Law and Policy in the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment. As an interdisciplinary conservation social scientist, she studies the relationship between forests and livelihoods, and how various governance mechanisms and institutions shape that relationship. Most of her work to-date has taken place in tropical and sub-tropical forests, with a recent extension into the Pacific Northwest of North America. Most recently, she’s been working on projects related to community forests, REDD+, the role of forests in alleviating poverty, forest restoration governance, and impacts of forest policy changes in various countries. See our research page for more details on specific projects. Reem has a PhD in Forestry (University of British Columbia), a Masters in Conservation Biology (Columbia University), and a BSc in Biology (McGill University), had previous appointments at Oregon State University (faculty) and University of Michigan (postdoc). She has worked and consulted for several international organizations, including the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Bioversity International, Forest Stewardship Council, FERN, Rights and Resources Initiative, USAID, and the World Bank. She was recently a member of the Global Forest Expert Panel on Forests and Poverty, and is currently Senior Associate Editor of Conservation Letters. She is also a research associate with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.