Please join the Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative for a virtual seminar presented by Reem Hajjar, Associate Professor, College of Forestry, Oregon State University.

The title of her talk is "The social and ecological outcomes of community forests."

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Abstract: Over the past 40 years, community forest management (CFM– where forest users have some role in managing and benefiting from local forests) has been promoted as a way to achieve multiple goals: conserving forest ecosystems, enhancing local livelihoods, and recognizing traditional resource rights over forests. Yet many of these initiatives have led to substantial socio-economic and environmental tradeoffs. In this talk, I will present the results of a global analysis of CFM’s outcomes on forests and people, as well as preliminary results of a study on community forests in the U.S., asking the question: does CFM, as a forest governance model, lead to just and sustainable management of forest landscapes?

Bio: Dr. Reem Hajjar is Associate Professor of Integrated Human and Ecological Systems at the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University.  As an interdisciplinary social scientist, she leads the FoLIAGe (Forests, Livelihoods, Institutions and Governance) Research Group. Much of her work strives to understand how to make forest governance processes more equitable and effective and looks to examine how such processes affect forest landscapes and related livelihoods in rural areas. Most of her research has taken place in the tropical regions of Latin America, West Africa and Southeast Asia, and more recently she has expanded her work to the U.S. West. Reem has a Masters in Conservation Biology from Columbia University, and a PhD in forestry from the University of British Columbia.