People

Team at Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain, Belgium)

Prof. Dr. Patrick Meyfroidt (P.I.), email

Patrick Meyfroidt holds a PhD in geography (2009) and a degree in sociology from Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium. His main research interests are land use and forest transitions, linkages between globalization and human-environmental changes, and feedbacks between environmental perceptions and land changes.

Patrick coordinates the MIDLAND project, and contributes to the different steps.

Dr. Philippe Rufin, email

Philippe is a Geographer with strong a interest in land systems and remote sensing. He obtained a PhD at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in Germany, where he used remote sensing to investigate the effects of irrigation dams on agricultural land systems on the global to the regional scale. Much of his work involves the development and application of tools and methods for large-area mapping of land use and land use intensity across decadal time frames. In the past, he studied land use on annual and perennial croplands, as well as pastures, in consolidated and smallholder systems within tropical and semi-arid regions.
In the MIDLAND project, Philippe´’s work involves mapping the dynamics of croplands, field size, and land use intensity across Northern Mozambique using drone imagery coupled with time series of high and very high resolution satellite imagery. The outcomes of his work will contribute to identifying and understanding recent trajectories of agricultural expansion and intensification in Northern Mozambique. He is supported by a research grant from the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique F.R.S.-FNRS.

Dr. Michelle Picoli, email

Michelle Picoli is a Statistician with a MSc in Remote Sensing at Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and a PhD in Agricultural Engineering at the University of Campinas, Brazil.  Her research focuses on land use mapping and monitoring, statistical analysis of spatio-temporal data and big earth observation data to address challenges related to land use change and environmental impacts.

In the MIDLAND project, Michelle focuses on remote sensing mapping of field size dynamics and mapping smallholder versus large-scale cropland dynamics in Northern Mozambique. Her work will provide data about rates and spatial patterns of dynamics linked to farm and field size.

Dr. Cristina Chiarella, email

Cristina’s research lies in the intersections of agricultural economics and geography. She holds a PhD in Geography and a MSc in Agricultural and Resource Economics from the University of California, Davis; and a BA in Economics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Her dissertation studied the consequences of climate change in the Dry Corridor of Honduras on crop losses by invasive species and migration. Cristina has previous research experience at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank and at California’s Cooperative Extension, in projects related to agricultural productivity and food security.

Cristina will contribute to the MIDLAND project by researching the tradeoffs between agricultural productivity and labor demand for small, medium, and large-scale farms in Sub-Saharan Africa. Her research will also contribute to characterize such tradeoffs for alternative farming systems.

Dr. Dilini Abeygunawardane, email 

Dilini has a background in ecology, natural resource management, and agricultural development policy. She holds a PhD in environmental management from The University of Queensland, Australia (2014). Before joining the MIDLAND team, Dilini did consultancy work for the CGIAR research centers IWMI and WorldFish undertaking projects in research monitoring and evaluation, institutional and policy analysis, and developing decision support systems.

In the MIDLAND project, Dilini focuses on transnational investment decisions in agriculture and forestry across emerging agricultural frontiers, with a specific focus on Southern and Eastern Africa. Her work will contribute to understanding how and why investors choose to move across national borders, potentially driving emerging frontiers and whether these decisions compose of and or justify the conditions hypothesized to drive frontier emergence.

Dr. Angela Kronenburg García, email  

Angela Kronenburg García studied cultural anthropology at Leiden University and completed her PhD at Wageningen University in 2015. Her thesis was on land tenure transformation, forest conflicts and leadership among the agro-pastoral Loita Maasai in Kenya. She has worked as a teaching assistant at Leiden University, as a postdoc researcher at the African Studies Centre Leiden and at Utrecht University she was involved in a research project on land governance, inclusive business and food security in Mozambique. Angela has also done consultancy work in Kenya and in the Netherlands on gender, land governance and food security.

Angela contributes to step one of the MIDLAND project. Her research seeks to understand the strategies, decisions and coalitions of actors in the emerging agricultural frontier of northern Mozambique. She is based in Maputo, Mozambique.

Dr. Adia Bey, email 

Adia Bey is a geospatial analyst with a background in forest monitoring, cultural heritage mapping and the use of GIS to support humanitarian relief work. After earning a BA in Anthropology at Columbia University and a MSc in Environmental Change and Management at Oxford University, Adia has worked on projects in over 20 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America with indigenous communities, NGOs, national governments and UN agencies.

Adia began her doctoral research with the MIDLAND project in September 2016. Her research aims are to map 30-years of land use change in northern Mozambique; to draw upon the interdisciplinary research of the MIDLANDS team to identify agent-specific pathways of land use change; and to measure the impacts of these land use changes on food security and carbon stocks.

Dr. Virginia Rodríguez García, email 

Virginia Rodríguez García holds a B.Sc. in Environmental Sciences from the University of Salamanca (Spain) and a M.Sc. in Agriculture and Bio-industries from the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and a M.Sc. in Agricultural and Food Economics from the University of Bonn (Germany). During her MA thesis, she analyzed the impact of coffee certification on the Bonga forest in Ethiopia where she did a fieldwork.

Virginia joined the MIDLAND project in October 2016. She contributes to step 2 by developing and testing theories to explain how do land use dynamics generate land use displacement and leakage, and when does land use displacement result in intensification versus expansion of land use.

Dr. Eduardo Oliveira, email 

Eduardo has a background in geography, strategic management and strategic spatial planning. He holds a PhD in spatial sciences from The University of Groningen, The Netherlands (2016). Before joining the MIDLAND team, Eduardo was a postdoctoral researcher at the Land Change Science research unit of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL in Switzerland. At WSL he did research on the territorial governance arrangements influencing processes of strategic spatial plan-making and plan-implementation at the urban regional level. He also did various systematic literature reviews of the digital transformation and landscape research and the topic of land degradation in strategic spatial planning.

In the MIDLAND project, Eduardo focuses on the governance of land and food systems and their sustainability in emerging land use frontiers, with a specific focus on northern Mozambique. His work will contribute to understanding the effectiveness of a trans-scalar strategic land use planning process by bringing together public and private actors, which are actors living and developing their activities far from the focal area and those actors living in and around the area influencing the governance and resilience of land systems.

Team at Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM, Mozambique)

Prof. Dr. Almeida Sitoe, email

Almeida Sitoe holds a PhD degree in Forest Science (2000). He is currently Full Professor of Silviculture and Ecology of Tropical Forests at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique. His main research interest is forest dynamics, with emphasis on ecological and human processes, impacts on the ecosystems conditions and functions. Current projects include evaluation of changes in forest plant species composition and diversity, biomass and carbon stocks associated with forest cover change, potential for reduction of carbon emission from deforestation and forest degradation.

Prof. Dr. Luis Artur, email

Luis Artur, Mozambican, holds a PhD in Sociology of Disasters, a MSc in Rural Development Sociology and a BSc in Agronomy. His current position is lecturer and researcher at Eduardo Mondlane university in Maputo, Mozambique. Artur has published internationally and nationally in books, journals and newspapers. Luis Artur has an extensive experience having been able to produce training material on (participatory) rural development, agriculture, climate change and disaster risk reduction. He has also supervised more than 30 BSc and MSc thesis. Current tasks includes framing the social aspects of environmental changes, integration of climate change adaptation in the national planning, the development of local plans of adaptation and the formulation of M&E system for climate change adaptation.

Prof. Dr. Natasha Ribeiro, email

Natasha S. Ribeiro, was born and raised in Maputo, Mozambique on August 24^th 1971. She holds a bachelors degree in Forest Engineering from the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Mozambique, a MSc. in Management and Conservation of Biodiversity from the Centro Agronomico Tropical de Investigación y Enseñanza (CATIE) in Costa Rica and a PhD in Environmental Sciences from the University of Virginia (UVa) in the USA. Natasha has more than 20 years of professional experience in teaching, researching and extension in the field of forestry and forest fires ecology. She lectures Environmental Impact Assessment and Restoration Ecology at UEM and Ecosystem Services at the Technical University of Lisbon (PhD level). In research, Natasha has initiated a long-term fire-related research program in the Niassa National Reserve, one of the most important conservation areas in the country. The program has produced key results that are being used to update its management plan. She has been also coordinated other research activities throughout the country such as: forest ecosystem services and biodiversity assessments. Natasha has been appointed the coordinator of key missions in the country such as: the National Strategy and Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation (NBSAP) and the design of EU Biodiversity Conservation Program for Mozambique. She was appointed to coordinate a EUMETcast receiving antenna hosted by UEM in the context of the regional project “Monitoring of the Environment for Security in Africa”. She is the regional coordinator of the Miombo Network of southern Africa. Natasha has received two awards during her academic years namely: the best bachelors student in Forest Engineering and the conservation award from the Department of Environmental Sciences, Uva as a PhD student. The Fulbright Visiting Scholar Program will contribute to enhance her capacities to conduct/coordinate research and expand partnerships in the USA, which may result in concrete follow-up research actions. After completion of the exchange program, Natasha will use the experience to improve teaching and research methods in her institution contributing to its vision of being a university of reference nationally and internationally. She will also use the experience to improve the contribution of the Miombo Network to bridge the gap between science and policy making in the southern Africa.

Arsénio Jorge

Sá Nogueira Lisboa, email

Sá Nogueira Lisboa holds a B.Sc. in Forest Engineering and M.Sc. in Management and Conservation of Biodiversity from the Eduardo Mondlane University (EMU), Mozambique. In his B.Sc. thesis, he developed aboveground biomass allometric equation for Moist Forest in Central Mozambique. Modelling of spatial variability of soil organic carbon and soil total nitrogen in mopane woodland in south of Mozambique was covered in his Master thesis. At the moment he is an assistant lecturer under supervision of Prof. Dr. Almeida Sitoe, at EMU, Maputo.

Sá Nogueira has over 5 years of experience in forest management and ecosystem services, and he has been involved in several research projects in Mozambique. In the last three years he has been working as research assistant of ACES project.

Milton Tovele (Master student), email 

Milton George Low Tovele (1992) is a master’s student in Rural Development at Eduardo Mondlane University. He has a degree in Agricultural Sciences from the Faculty of Agriculture of the Catholic University of Mozambique, Cuamba, Niassa. For his B.Sc. thesis, he developed a Variety Test: Adaptability of Four Forage Varieties. He also graduated as a medium agricultural and livestock technician from the Agrarian Institute of Boane, Maputo. For his B.Sc. thesis, he also developed Variety Test: Susceptibility and Resistance to Mite in Horticulture.

Milton contributes to the MIDLAND project with his M.Sc. research, which is titled Land use competition in Mecuburi district: challenges and opportunities for forest conservation and rural development.

Julieta Jetimane (Master student), email

Julieta Lurdes Jetimane was born on 9^th July of 1991, and is a student of master degree in Management and Conservation of Biodiversity at Eduardo Mondlane University. With a degree in Forestry Engineering at the same University. In her B. Sc. Thesis, she developed about floristic composition and aerial biomass estimation of the Afzelia quanzensis species in Southern Mozambique. Has 2 years of experience as a monitor in the fields of Forest Exploration and Plant Physiology, Forest Engineering and Agronomy courses respectively. At the moment she is working with environment projects. Julieta has 3 years of experience working with projects related to environmnent, data processing and analysis of data using GIS (Geographic Information System).