Brian E. Robinson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at McGill. His research looks at how people meet their needs through use of ecosystems and natural resources, and the role this plays in development in poorer regions of the world. Recent work has evaluated the livelihood impacts of a payment for ecosystem services program near Beijing, how rural villages choose to manage mushroom harvests in south China, and how land tenure influences deforestation rates globally.
After you finished college, you joined the US Peace Corps and moved to China. While living in China, what inspired you to begin thinking about the relationship between the environment and sustainable livelihoods.
The pace and scale of development in China is astounding. I first lived there from 2000-2002, and I was utterly shocked at how quickly rural and urban areas alike were transforming. The breakneck speed of development allowed me to see areas transform, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, and made me want to look more deeply at how we use surrounding ecosystems and environmental resources to support more denser communities.Ěý
The concept of eco-system services is central to many of your research interests. Can you explain this concept?
I think of ecosystem services most simply as all the “stuff" we receive from the natural landscape that we get without having to do anything. I focus mostly on the good stuff (although there is bad stuff too) — looking at benefits we get that usually go unnoticed but can often underpin livelihoods or development initiatives. Â
Can you tell me about your current research projects and how the concept of eco-system services lends itself to these projects?
One of my current projects is developing a way to measure the role ecosystem services plays in supporting livelihoods in a region in rural China. If we have a consistent way to measure households’ dependence on ecosystem services, then we can better understand what parts of the landscape are critical to help support these rural communities and so as not to exacerbate poverty. We can also start to target which households use environmental resources most, which groups do not, and the implications this might have for managing the landscape.Ěý
Your research combines methods from many different disciplines. How has this allowed you to better understand the interactions between livelihoods and the environment?
Often a problem-centered approach to research — that is, starting with a problem then asking how to better understand that problem — leads one to want to understand many different sides of a problem. This can often mean drawing from several perspectives to get a more full picture of an issue. Of course, no one person can be an expert in many fields, so developing strong collaborations and building dynamic interdisciplinary teams is key to gaining useful insights.Ěý
To learn more about Professor Robinson’s teaching and research interests, visit the Environment & Livelihoods website: .Ěý
RSS