Research
Up to 2004, my research was shaped by my training, after that I progressively figured out an overarching purpose and a scientific rationale to support it.
Thus, my rationale has transited from disciplinary, to inter- and trans-disciplinary approaches, as it is only through involving other scientific disciplines and considering the participation of local groups of interest that, realistic, legitimate and viable research outcomes would be generated. Furthermore, I embrace systems thinking as a philosophical, conceptual and methodological standpoint, that allows for the disentanglement of the inherent complexity that characterizes most research subjects. Lastly, I assert that research for development should be framed under real-life and problem-solving premises, as then its outcomes find their fair raison d'etre, thus, become socially valuable and ethically justifiable.
Accordingly, the subjects of my research have successively broadened from agriculture, agroforestry and rural development, towards a variety of development-related subjects in the human/environment realm, i.e., topics such as carbon sequestration, multifunctional agriculture, climate change adaptation, social-ecological resilience, food and nutrition security, urbanization, public health and sustainable mining.
While I do original research, my overarching aspiration is to establish a conceptual and methodological corpus to operationalize systems thinking for development research. This is a project that I am working since 2019.
Projects
In inverse chronological order, a subject-wise summary of the projects and subjects I am/was involved.
Resilience and social-ecological tipping points (PRODIGY; www.prodigy.biotip.org; 2019-2025). PRODIGY is large-scale project whose focus is to assess the social-ecological resilience of the trilateral boundary region between Bolivia, Brazil and Peru, which confronts multiple challenges collateral to intensive changes in land use. PRODIGY explores means to identify and prevent the reaching of tipping points that would endanger the region provision of ecosystem services and the well-being of its inhabitants, mostly rural and depending on the surrounding for their livelihoods. In PRODIGY, I am team leader on systemic evaluation of the small household social-ecological resilience.
Bioeconomy and territorial development in Cuba (CUBE; www.cube.bio-econ.org; 2021-23). CUBE is an inter- and trans-disciplinary project operationalized via the value-web and systems approaches. CUBE will disclose and explore ways to prop the local bioeconomies of three agricultural-based regions across Cuba, harmonizing country-wise export visions with the territorial (local) development, through: peoples’ food and nutritional sovereignty, prevention of ecological harm and promotion of climate change adaptation. In CUBE, I am the team member in charge of the participatory systems analysis.
Bioeconomy and Food and nutrition security (BiomassWeb; http://biomassweb.org/; 2014-2018). In sub-Saharan Africa we have implemented the concept of biomass-based value webs, aiming at strengthening the interconnected channels in which biomass is produced, processed, traded, and consumed. The project involved biophysical, technical, social, economic, commercial and technological aspects, and targeted locally-relevant crops, such as maize, cassava, plantain/banana/enset, and bamboo. In BiomassWeb, I was team leader of a work package on Agroforestry and food and nutrition security, and later performed as project co-coordinator.
Climate change adaptation science service in West Africa (WASCAL; www.wascal.org; 2010-2016). WASCAL is a large-scale initiative established to boost the scientific capabilities in West Africa to confront the climate change-related challenges. WASCAL activities stretched across the region covering research, capacity building and systematic data collection. Nowadays WASCAL became a key regional entity for climate services provision. I was the leader on a team dealing with farmers perception of climate change and adaptation strategies.
Resilience et al. (post-doc: 2009-10). After obtaining my doctoral degree, I was invited by the Crop Science group of the University of Bonn, to develop a research concept on ‘Approaches to manage Disturbance and Change’. The product compiled a set of theoretical and operational premises to analyze the resilience, vulnerability and adaptability of Agricultural Land-use systems.
Functional biodiversity in agroforestry systems (PhD: 2004-09). In my doctoral dissertation, I developed an approach and methodology, that combined multicriteria analysis and multivariate statistics, to evaluate the multifunctionality of complex agroforestry systems. The case-study was located in Tomé Acú, northern Brazil.
Restoration of degraded volcanic soils (REVOLSO; 2003-04). In the highly erodible volcanic-originated soils of central Mexico, I identified and systematized the agroforestry practices that farmers use for soil conservation, and the preferred local species. Later on, I identified the technological and organizational innovations that could led to improve their performance.
Carbon sequestration in agroforestry systems (MSc: 2000-04). I lead and participated in several studies on carbon sequestration by complex woody-dominated land-use systems. These started with my MSc dissertation in agroforestry systems in the Peruvian Amazon, citrus-based agroforestry systems in south-eastern Mexico (Veracruz), and primary and secondary forests in southern Mexico (Tabasco and Chiapas).