Inter- and transdisciplinary sustainability scientist with a strong practical and academic background in research that aims to better understand how social-ecological systems respond to global sustainability challenges and how to transform them towards sustainable system states.
Currently, I am a Postdoctoral Researcher within the Biodiversa+ program ‘Wilding Grasslands'.
The project co-creates and evaluates (re)wilding as Nature-based Solution (NbS) for grassy ecosystems, with a focus on the high-altitude grasslands of the Eastern Cape Drakensberg in South Africa. The project specifically investigates opportunities for (re)wilding as NbS that are inclusive and build on the needs, values, visions, and knowledge of the people living in grassy ecosystems. In my current role, I work with an international team of senior researchers, NGOs, local community members, and government to help initiate the ‘Wilding Grasslands’ project.
Before I started as a Postdoc, I was a PhD candidate within the project 'Tipping the iceberg: Leveraging a food transition for Indigenous communities in the Bering Sea'.
The project adopted a complex systems perspective to identify leverage points in the marine-based Arctic Indigenous food system on the Pribilof Islands. We took a highly participatory approach and established a Transformation Lab on St. Paul Island that involved and empowered community members to identify transformation pathways towards a sustainable future of increased food security. The project gained a holistic understanding of the social-ecological system to identify interdependencies and feedbacks between humans and nature and find key leverage points for sustainability transformation.
You can listen to our podcast ‘Tipping the Iceberg’ on Spotify by clicking this link:
https://open.spotify.com/show/3mMuDiUrkq0NDRGByjtZHH?si=h2vC9UTcRYuZxDnLPa-WJQ