Our second Associate Editor to be profiled is Maricela De la Torre Castro, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Geography at Stockholm University.
Read on to find out how she has been using seagrasses to demonstrate socio-ecological systems.
Maricela has a background in Marine Sciences and since her masters works with Natural Resource Management. Her research trajectory started at the Department of Systems Ecology from which Stockholm Resilience center has its roots. Maricela’s research focuses on coastal/marine management, governance and associated institutions. She has been using the iconic example of seagrasses as social-ecological systems and has worked extensively in East Africa (mainly in Zanzibar, Tanzania).
Her main interest resides in human-nature interactions and how the world can transform towards a more sustainable and just society. This is investigated through in-depth case studies in which ecological goods and services, patterns of resource use, management and governance regimes as well as the ecosystem base are considered. Her projects include seagrass small-scale fisheries and poverty, high-valued marine products such as sea cucumbers, social aspects of climate change and the important topic of gender in coastal settings; all to better understand institutional, management and governance processes.
Maricela has deep collaboration with social scientists, especially political scientists. She is a member of various scientific boards and she is the editor of the book “People, Nature and Research in Chwaka Bay, Zanzibar, Tanzania”. She has extensively published in different scientific journals. Her teaching tasks include participation and/or leadership in the courses Ecosystems goods and services management, Landscape ecology, Political Ecology, Climate and Society and Geography and Natural Resources.
To find out more about the book Maricela edited, read this post from the Nairobi Convention.
Relational Thinking 