Research output per year
Research output per year
Øster Voldgade 10
1350 København K
Research activity per year
Education
1990: M.Sc. agronomy, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark
1997: PhD in geography, Department of Geography, University of Copenhagen (DG)
2000: Diploma in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (Adjunktpædagogikum), Faulty of Science, University of Copenhagen
Languages
Mother tongue: Danish
Fluent: English
Understanding and good speaking: French
Understanding and basic speaking: German
Some knowledge of Malay/Indonesian
Employment record
2021- Head of Studies, BSc and MSc Geography and Geoinformatics
2016-2022 Head of Section of Geography, DGN
2014-present Professor of Human Geography, DGN
2006-2014 Associate Professor, DGN (formerly Department of Geography and Department of Geography and Geology, DG)
2004-2006 Network Coordinator (ReNED) and part time Associate Professor, DG
2001-2003 Associate Professor, DG (project funded, DUCED SLUSE)
2003 Part-time Coordinator of Danida working groups on environmental assistance
1997-2008 Part-time consultant on development issues in several African and Asian countries, Nordic Consulting Group
1997-2001 Assistant Professor, DG (project funded, SEREIN and DUCED SLUSE)
1994-1997 PhD-scholarship at DG
1992-1994 Junior National Expert, European Commission Delegation, Burkina Faso
Scientific projects and funding
2024-2028 Leader at IGN, ‘TRANS-AG: Governing Transformation in Agricultural Systems’ (PI at Danish Institute for International Studies). Funded by Danida. DKK 10,000,000, 1,100,000 for IGN.
2021-2026 RurbanClimate - Climate Resilience across the Rural-Urban Continuum. Project member, responsible for work package on the relationship between livelihoods and ecosystem services. DKK 12 mill., 4 mill. for IGN.
2021-2026 Fair for whom? Power, politics and precarity in transformations of tropical forest-agriculture frontiers. Project member. Funding: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), Kyoto, Japan. USD 2,500.000 (fully administered in Japan).
2021-2022 Policy recommendations of ways of integrating shifting cultivation into sustainable development of forested landscapes. Co-PI, funded by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), DKK 377,300.
2018-2022 Leader at DGN and supervisor, ‘Inspire4Nature: International training at the Science-Policy Interface for Researchers in Europe, for Nature’. EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie International Training Network, led by CNRS, France. DGN share: DKK 1,982,898
2018-2022 Director of Training and supervisor, ‘Operationalising Telecouplings for Solving Sustainability Challenges for Land Use (COUPLED)’. EU Marie Sklodowska-Curie International Training Network, led by Humboldt University, Germany. DGN share: DKK 4,134,481
2016-2017 Leader at DGN ‘Land-use intensification in forest-agriculture frontier landscapes: effects on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation (ESPA-Frontiers)’ led by University of East Anglia, UK, and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council under the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Programme, UK. DGN share GBP 60,000
2013-2016 Leader at DGN ‘Ecosystem Services, Wellbeing and Justice: Developing Tools for Research and Development Practice’ led by University of East Anglia, UK, and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council under the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Programme, UK. DGN share GBP 102,000
2013-2016 Leader at DGN ‘Knowledge based climate adaptation in West Africa’, led by AGRHYMET, Niger, and funded by Danida. DGN share DKK 2,740,000
2012-2016 Leader at DGN of sub-project on ‘environmental enclosures – REDD+’ under the ‘Property and Citizenship in Developing Countries (ProCit)’ project led by Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen and funded by the Danish Research Council for Social Sciences. DGN share DKK 2,220,000
2011-2014 Coordinator and Principal Scientist of EU FP7 funded project entitled Impacts of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and Enhancing Forest Carbon Stocks (I-REDD+). Total budget EUR 3,149,968. DGN-share DKK 2,017,907
2009-2012 Leader of the project Transition of Shifting Cultivation Systems at the Agriculture/Forest Frontiers – Sustainability or Demise, funded by the Danish Research Council for Social Sciences, DKK 1,810,000
2006-2009 Senior researcher and coordinator of Work Package in the EU FP6-funded African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) project on adaptation to climate change/variability in rural communities of the Sahel, West Africa, EUR 321,800
2006-2007 Project Coordinator of the Galathea3 endorsed project on Sustainable resource use or imminent collapse? Climate, livelihoods and production in the Southwest Pacific, funded by several private organizations, DKK 1,600,000
1998-2004 Danish University Consortium for Sustainable Land Use and Natural Resource Management (DUCED SLUSE). Leader of an interdisciplinary research project on shifting cultivation dynamics in Sarawak, Malaysia
1997-1998 Sahel-Sudan Environmental Research Initiative (SEREIN), with responsibility for a sub-project on farming systems in Burkina Faso
1994-1997 PhD project on shifting cultivation systems and plant domestication in Sarawak, Malaysia, funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Supervision, post docs
Supervision, PhD students
PhD and senior staff assessment committees
2024 Chair of PhD evaluation: Earth observation of the Sahel-Sudan region and its parkland system. Tingting Lu, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
2024 Chair of PhD evaluation: Uncovering pathways between forests, trees and diets. Rasmus Skov Olesen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
2024 Chair of PhD evaluation: Environmental Conservation in China within a Social-ecological Context. Evaluating Conservation Policies and Prioritizing Spatial Strategies. Hao Xia, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
2023 PhD evaluation: Governing agricultural land use in an interconnected world: Opportunities and challenges for Voluntary Sustainability Standards. Gabi Sonderegger, University of Bern, Switzerland.
2023 Chair of PhD evaluation: Defining, operationalizing and promoting Sustainable Land Use Systems. A Pathway to Foster Sustainability in Areas Affected by Armed Conflict and Deforestation. Lisset Marulanda Perez, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
2022 Chairman Senior Reseacher evaluation committee, Danish Insititute of International Studies.
2022 PhD evaluation: Disentangeling the global soybean complex. Land use change in the era of reflexive modernity. Finn Mempel, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Spain
2020 PhD evaluation: Food security in a changing climate. The role of cropland intensification and land acquisitions across Africa. Altaaf Mechiche-Alami, Lund University, Sweden.
2020 PhD evaluation: Telecoupled land use change in north-eastern Madagascar: Trade-offs in ecosystem services supply and implications for local human well-being. Jorge C. Llopis, University of Bern, Switzerland
2019 PhD evaluation: Landscapes and livelihoods changes in the north-western uplands of Cambodia: opportunities for building resilient farming systems. Rada Kong, Université de Montpellier/SupAgro Montpellier, France
2019 PhD evaluation: Advancing the Representation of Human Dimensions in Large-scale Land Use Models. Case studies for Laos. Chritine Ornetsmüller, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
2019 PhD evaluation: The social-ecological drivers of tree growth and diversity: Interdisciplinary learning with smallholder carbon agroforestry schemes in Mexico, Uganda and Mozambique. Geoff Wells, University of Edinburgh
2018 PhD evaluation: From the pixel to the globe: Large-scale land acquisitions as a driver of socio-environmental change. Emma Johansson, Lund University, Sweden.
2017 Chairman of PhD evaluation: From Land to Riches. The shifting role of land as upland livelihoods commercialize in Lao P.D.R. Catherine Hepp, Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
2017 Chairman of assessment committee for Professorship in Climate Change at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway
2017 PhD evaluation: Land politics in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh: Dynamics of property, identity and authority. Fariba Alamgir, University of East Anglia, UK:
2016 PhD evaluation: Pathways to future cropland. Assessing uncertainties in socio-economic processes by applying a global land-use model. Kerstin Engström, Lund University, Sweden.
2015 PhD evaluation: Shifting cultivation in the upland secondary forests of the Philippines: Biodiversity and carbon stock assessment, and ecosystem services trade-offs in land-use decisions. Sharif Ahmed Mukul, University of Queensland, Australia.
2015 PhD evaluation: Resilience of Amazonian landscapes to agricultural intensification, Catarina Jakovac, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
2015 Member of assessment committee for Professorship at the Department of Agroecology, University of Aarhus, Denmark.
2014 Chairman of assessment committee for Professorship in Human Geography, DGN, Denmark
2014 Chairman of PhD evaluation: Political geographies of displacement by dispossession in Colombia: the case of afrodescendant communities in the Alto Cauca. Irene Vélez-Torres, DGN, Denmark
2013 Chairman of assessment committee for Associate Professorship in Globalization of Agriculture, Rural Transformation and Land Use Changes, DGN, Denmark
2013 Chairman of PhD evaluation: Exploring Land Use Change in the Sahel: Contemporary Perspectives on Coupled Human-Environment Systems. Laura Vang Rasmussen, DGN, Denmark
2012 PhD evaluation: A spatial assessment of changes in land use and carbon stocks in Laos: A contribution to policy and decision making for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. Cornelia Hett, University of Bern, Switzerland
2012 PhD selection committee, PhD scholarship International Development Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark
2009 Senior researcher assessment committee, Risø, Technical University of Denmark.
2008 PhD evaluation: From Conflict to Unsustainable Consensus – The Actors in Fight for Biodiversity and Survival. Stig Jensen, Roskilde University, Denmark
2007 Chairman of PhD evaluation: Farming system changes among ethnic minorities in the Vietnamese uplands. A comparative village-study on the effects of land allocation in terms of food security, livelihoods and land use changes. Rikke Folving, DGG, Denmark
2006 PhD evaluation: Livelihood, land use and environment interactions in the highlands of East Africa. Eija Soini, University of Helsinki, Finland
2005 PhD evaluation: Multifaceted forest management for biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation: a case study of mid hills of Nepal. Arun Rijal, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark
2005 Chairman of PhD evaluation: Soil and Water Conservation in Agroforestry Systems: Soil erodibility and runoff under improved fallows and no-tillage in western Kenya. Anja Boye, DGG, Denmark
2004 PhD evaluation: Institutional and ecological aspects of non-timber forest product utilisation – commercial Himalayan medicinal plants in Nepal. Helle Overgaard Larsen, Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, Denmark
Other teaching and supervision
PhD courses, organiser or co-organizer:
Course coordinator, BSc and MSc level, University of Copenhagen:
Contribution to other courses, BSc and MSc level, University of Copenhagen:
Supervision of more than 100 M.Sc. and B.Sc. theses at University of Copenhagen.
2000-2003: Assisting with development of Master’s programme and guest lecturing at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
2004-2018: External examiner in geography at Roskilde University and Aalborg University
Other academic activities and positions
2024 Multidisciplinary reviewer for assessment of Research Units, Portuguise Research Council
2023 Chair of the Panel for Development Research, Academy of Finland
2022-2025 Chair of the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant Panel SH7: Human Mobility, Environment and Space
2022-present Vice-President of the Royal Danish Geographical Society (RDGS)
2022 Member of evaluation panel of the Faculty of Sciences, University of Turku, Finland and of the University of Turku Graduate School (UTUGS)
2021-present Head of Studies for Geography and Geoinformatics, DGN
2019-present Specialty Chief Editor of the Section Land, Livelihoods and Food Security in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems (Frontiers)
2018-2021 Member of European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant Panel SH2: Social Sciences and Humanities – Institutions, Values, Environment and Space
2018-present Member of the University of Copenhagen Global Development Network working group, representing the Faculty of Science
2017-2018 Chairman of evaluation panel for evaluation of geographical research in Norway, Research Council of Norway.
2016-2022 Head of Section for Geography, DGN
2016-2021 Member of the Editorial Board of Land (MDPI Press)
2016-2018 Member of evaluation panel for the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) calls on development research
2015 Member of evaluation panel for the Faculty of Sciences, University of Turku, Finland - responsible for assessment of the Department of Geography and Geology.
2014-present Editorial Board member of GEO (Royal Geographical Society, UK and Wiley)
2014-present Member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Land Use Science (Taylor & Francis – Routledge)
2013-present Editorial Board member of Environmental Management (Springer, New York)
2012-2016 Leader of the Research Group, Environment and Society in Developing Countries, DGN
2012 Invited participant at Ernst Strungmann Forum on Rethinking Global Land Use in an Urban Era, Frankfurt, Germany, September 2012
2011-present Member of the Council of the Royal Danish Geographical Society
2011-2019 Chief Editor of Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography, Royal Danish Geographical Society (Taylor & Francis – Routledge)
2011-2017 Member of the Scientific Steering Committee of the Global Land Project, appointed by IHDP/IGBP
2010-2013 Member of the Master’s Education Study Board of the Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen
2010-2013 Member of Danish National Advisory Committee on EU FP7, Environment
2009-present Evaluator for the EU FP7 Environment Programme, National Science Foundation USA, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong and the Swiss National Science Foundation
2009-present Editorial Board member of Human Ecology (Springer, New York)
2007-2011 Secretary General of the Royal Danish Geographical Society (RDGS)
2007-2009 Chairman of the Board of Danish Development Research Network (DDRN), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, DKK 9.9 million
2006-2012 Advisor for the International Foundation for Science
2006-present Member of the WWF Denmark Presidium
2006-2019 Member of the WWF-Denmark Scientific Committee
2004-2006 Coordinator of the Research Network for Environment and Development (ReNED) promoting research use in international development
2003 Coordinator for three working groups on environment and development under the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2000-2003 Representative of DUCED SLUSE in the Project Steering Committee of the Malaysian University Consortium (MUCED SLUSE)
1999-present Peer reviewer for >50 international journals
Awards/Prizes
2024: A.C Moreen Medal, Finnish Geographical Society, for pedagogical development in Geography teaching.
2016: Galathea Silver Medal, Royal Danish Geographical Society for research leadership at the Galathea3 Expedition.
Conferences
Conference and workshop contributions: 57 oral presentations and 12 poster presentations given at a wide range of international conferences, workshops and meetings.
Lead or co-organizer of the following conferences and meetings:
2016 Galathea3 – 10 years later. Conference organized by the Royal Danish Geographical Society, 14 December 2016.
2016 Global Land Programme - Open Science Meeting: Land system science: understanding realities and developing solutions. Beijing, 24-27 October 2016
2015 Property and Citizenship in Developing Societies (PROCIT), 3rd International Conference, Urban Property, Governance and Citizenship in the Global South. 23-26 June 2015, Copenhagen, Denmark
2014 Global Land Project - Open Science Meeting: Land Transformations: Between Global Challenges and Local Realities. Berlin, Germany, 19-21 March 2014
2014 International Conference on Carbon-Land-Property, Copenhagen 1-4 July 2014
2013 Side-event ‘Opportunities for REDD+ in degraded forests and complex landscapes’ at EU pavilion, UNFCCC COP19 in Warsaw, Poland, 15 November 2012
2012 Conference on science based measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) systems in Southeast Asia, Hanoi, Vietnam, 9 November 2012.
2012 Side-event ‘Is the window of opportunity for REDD+ closing?’ at EU pavilion, UNFCCC COP18 in Doha, Qatar, 29 November 2012.
2011 Workshop on the Transition of shifting cultivation at Forest-Agriculture Frontiers, ECOSUR, Chetumal, Mexico, 26 June to 1 July 2011
2010 Session ‘Change in shifting cultivation at forest-agriculture frontiers’ at the Global Land Project (GLP) Open Science Meeting on Land Systems, Global Change and Sustainability, Phoenix, Arizona, 17-19 October 2010.
2009 GLP workshop on Forest-agriculture frontiers: impacts of land-use transitions on livelihoods and environment in the humid and sub-humid tropics', 2-3 November 2009, Vientiane, Laos
2008 The demise of swidden in Southeast Asia. A conference aimed at assessing the scope and consequences of the decline in swidden cultivation, 7 March, Hanoi, Vietnam
2007 International conference on Sustainable livelihoods and resource management in small islands, 22-23 August, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
2005 Ecosystem services and biodiversity, 17-18 August 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark
2004 Bridging research and development assistance: Strategies for adaptation to climate change in developing countries, 26-27 August 2004, Copenhagen, Denmark
2003 Local Land Use Strategies in a Globalizing World: Shaping Sustainable Natural and Social Environments, August 21-23, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.
My research and teaching responsibilities are focused on global environmental change, land use transitions and food security in the Global South. Specifically, I have worked for two decades on the dynamics of forest-agriculture frontiers looking at how changes in land use affect socio-economic and environmental systems. I also work with climate change adaptation and mitigation and have a general interest in the interface between development, environmental management and land use change. My regional specialization is Southeast Asia and West Africa, but I have also worked in the Pacific, East and Central Africa and Latin America.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review