Université du Québec en Outaouais
Ph.D. candidate
Supervisor: Jérôme Dupras
Start: 2021-09-07
End: 2026-08-31
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Project

ePEStemology: Towards a consolidation of social and ecological integrity for conservation and development in Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES)
Over the past 20 years, payments for ecosystem services (PES) have become a leading tool to advance both conservation and sustainable livelihood transitions by offering economic incentives to protect soils, water, sequester carbon, and protect biodiversity. While premised as a market-based transaction, PES design and implementation is shaped by diverging value frameworks predicated on the intersection between contextually-specific socio-cultural relations, historical asymmetric relations of power in the governance of land and resources, emergent ecological processes, and ongoing economic land-use drivers. This research project will be the first attempt to systematically compile all peer-reviewed literature on PES research, resulting in the “ePEStemology” database to identify plural epistemologies in assessing PES success or failure. This database will be complemented with an in-depth case study in Mexico, where different agrarian contexts have been experimenting with PES for nearly 20 years. Research will be grounded in a transformative paradigm prioritizing social and environmental justice by holding scholars, practitioners, and research participants accountable to how knowledge is co-generated. The project also aims to initiate a global consortium, building off the database to foster transdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration on existing conservation projects around the world.

Keywords

Payments for Ecosystem Services, Development Policies, Epistemology & Methodology, Social & Cultural Factors of Environmental Protection, Power & Organization, Values & Norms Systems

Publications

1- Synergies and trade‐offs among integrated conservation approaches in Mexico
Alatorre, Andrea, Johanna Depenthal, Elizabeth Shapiro‐Garza
2021 Conservation Biology

2- Graphical models and the challenge of evidence-based practice in development and sustainability
Calder, Ryan S.D., Andrea Alatorre, Rebecca S. Marx, Varun Mallampalli, Sara A. Mason, Lydia P. Olander, Marc Jeuland, Mark E. Borsuk
2020 Environmental Modelling & Software