Academics
Beverly, Massachusetts & Bhutan
EDUCATION
B.S. in Botany,
University of Massachusetts - Amherst. (MA, USA)
SFS Alum, Ecuador Summer '90
M.F. in Forestry,
Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. (CT, USA)
Environmental Policy Certificate,
School for International and Public Administration, Columbia University. (NY, USA)
Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology,
Columbia University. (NY, USA)
TEACHING
Eastern Himalayan Forests and Rural Livelihood, Bhutan, EE 358
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
- Member, Ecological Society of America
- Adjunct research scientist, CERC, Columbia University
- Scientific advisor, No Water, No Life project
STAFF PROFILE
I joined the SFS head office in 2007 as Dean. Prior to that I served on the SFS board for four years, and long before that I was an SFS student (SFS Ecuador, 1990). The SFS course set me on a path to work in the Neotropics, where I have been working ever since. I conducted ethnobotanical research in Mexico, Costa Rica and Ecuador. At Yale FES my interest shifted to forest resource management, and I have been working on small-scale forest production systems with smallholder farmers in Amazonia since 1997.
Upon completing the doctorate at Columbia University I took a post-doc position at the Earth Institute to work on the UN Millennium Project, focusing on MDG 7 on Environmental Sustainability. I then took a research position at Columbia’s Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) and focused on smallholder timber management in Amazonia. I am still associated as adjunct at CERC. I enjoyed a one-year internship at the IUCN-The World Conservation Union in Switzerland where I was exposed to a global network of conservationists. I had the honor in 2007 to be selected as a Fulbright Scholar in Peru where I taught courses on Amazon forest ecology and sustainable development in a very small branch of the National Amazonian University. Today I travel regularly to the SFS field Centers in seven countries to work with our center directors and faculty on the curriculum and research. As dean, my responsibility is to ensure the high academic quality of SFS programs and oversee the advance of the SFS Centers’ research plan.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests center on forests and people, specifically how rural households utilize forests for subsistence and livelihood goals. Since 1997 I have worked mainly on the floodplain landscapes of Amazonia, and my doctoral work was on the natural history of a floodplain specialist tree that is managed in agricultural systems. I have worked on questions related to timber production in smallholder farming systems, and the policy and regulatory conditions that allow for rural producers’ legal engagement in timber markets.
I am also interested in educational research, and my question centers on how learning occurs in field-based settings.
RESEARCH PROJECTS
The research conducted at SFS field centers is designed to answer key questions related to critical and related social and environmental problems and to provide our hosts with detailed and accurate information for decision making and action. Faculty and student research projects are linked to the Center’s five year research plan, which defines an overarching research directive. Prospective SFS students, please note that the range of projects offered by faculty will vary from semester to semester. These should be discussed with the faculty after your arrival at the centre.
PROJECTS PRIOR TO SFS
A household forestry program for the Ucayali Province, Amazonian Peru (supported by the Tinker Foundation, 2004-2007), PI: Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez, co-PI: Robin R. Sears, Columbia University. The goal of this project is to help the authorities and residents of Ucayali Province to design, develop, and implement an effective household forestry program. Our objective is to gain legal recognition of small-scale forestry as practiced now by innumerable rural households as a viable and important way of both generating income for Amazonians and for sustainably managing secondary forests in the region. The first component was to gain recognition of the extraordinary integrated technologies characteristic of the region as valuable assets and to help farmers obtain technical, financial, and scientific support of local, national, and international institutions to improve upon and upscale these practices. We trained local authorities in the integrated production systems of successful local households and experiences of collective actions in conservation and environmental management. The second component was to translate local practice (at household as well as community levels) into formal rules and regulations linked to national policy. To achieve this objective, we provided training to local-level and middle-level government authorities who are charged with implementing and enforcing national policies.
Outputs
Sears, R. R., and M. Pinedo-Vasquez. in press, 2011. From fallow timber to urban housing: family forestry and tablilla production in Peru. Pages xx-xx in S. Hecht, K. Morrison, and C. Padoch, eds. The Social Life of Forests. Chicago University Press, Chicago.
Sears, R. R., and M. Pinedo-Vasquez. 2011. Forest policy reform and the organization of logging in Peruvian Amazonia. Development and Change 42(2): 609-631.
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2007 Fulbright U.S. Scholar for teaching and research, four months, Universidad Nacional de la Amazonia Peruana, Contamana, Peru
2006 – 2007 Tinker Foundation Institutional Grant for "A Household Forestry Program for Ucayali Province (Peru)" [Co-PI, renewal, $138,000]
2005 – 2008 National Science Foundation collaborative grant in Human and Social Dynamics program "Global Markets, Regional Landscapes, and Household Decisions: Modeling the History of Transformation of the Amazon Estuary" [Co-PI, NSF Award #0527578, $732,411]
2004 – 2005 Tinker Foundation Institutional Grant for "Small-scale forestry as part of an integrated livelihood strategy for rural smallholders" [Co-PI, $69,000]
2003 – 2004 AAAS-Women in International Scientific Collaboration Travel Grant for "Ecology of the aquatic-terrestrial forests of the seasonally inundated Amazon landscape: changes related to forest conversion and resource management" [PI, $4,000]
2001 – 2004 National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant with Dr. Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez for "Natural regeneration and management in agrecosystems in a seasonally flooded environment" [NSF BCS-02-0348, $7,645]
2001 National Security Education Program David L. Boren International Graduate Research Fellowship [$21,000]
2000, 2001 The Land Institute Graduate Research Fellowship [$3,000, $6,000]
2000 American Women in Science Education Foundation Pre-doctoral Award [$1,000]
1997-2003 Columbia University Graduate Fellowship [Tuition, partial stipend] 1997-2003 The New York Botanical Garden Graduate Fellowship [Stipend]
1995 Tropical Resource Institute Research Grant, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies [$2,000]
1994 Donaldson Trust Scholarship, Yale University [$5,000]
1990 Woods Hole Award, University of Massachusetts-Amherst [$2,000]
1990 Roger Torrey Memorial Award for top Botany student, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Botany Department [Tuition]
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS (last updated October 2011)
Peer-reviewed journals
Sears, RR and M Pinedo-Vasquez (2011). Forest policy reform and the organization of logging in Peruvian Amazonia. Development and Change 42(2): 609-631.
Padoch, C, E Brondizio, S Costa, M Pinedo-Vasquez, RR Sears, and A Siqueira. 2008. Urban forest and rural cities: multi-sited households, consumption patterns, and forest resources in Amazonia. Ecology and Society 13: [online] URL: www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol13/iss2/art2/.
Sears, RR, C Padoch & M Pinedo-Vasquez. 2007. Amazon forestry transformed: Integrating knowledge for smallholder timber management in eastern Brazil. Human Ecology 35: 697- 707.
Padoch, C & RR Sears. 2005. Conserving concepts: in praise of sustainability. Conservation Biology 19(1): 1-3.
Melnick, DJ, Y Kakabadse, JA McNeely, G Schmidt-Traub, and RR Sears. 2005. The Millennium Project: the positive health implications of improved environmental sustainability. The Lancet 365: 723-725.
Dávalos, LM, RR Sears, G Raygorodetski, HB Cross, T Grant, LR Putzel, T Barnes, B Simmons & AL Porzecanski. 2003. Regulating access to genetic resources under the Convention on Biological Diversity: an analysis of selected case studies. Biodiversity and Conservation 12(7):1511-1524.
Sears, RR, LM Dávalos & G. Ferraz. 2001. Missing the forests for the profits: the role of multinational corporations in the International Forest Regime. Journal of Environment & Development 10(4): 345-364.
Book chapters
Sears, RR, and M Pinedo-Vasquez. (in press, 2011). From fallow timber to urban housing: family forestry and tablilla production in Peru. Pp xx-xx in S. Hecht, K. Morrison, and C. Padoch, eds. The Social Life of Forests. Chicago University Press, Chicago.
Pinedo-Vasquez, M, and RR Sears. 2011. Varzea forests: multifunctionality as a resource for conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Pages 187-206 in M Pinedo-Vasquez, M Ruffino, C Padoch, andES Brondizio , eds. The Amazon Várzea: the decade past and the decade ahead. Springer Publishers and The New York Botanical Garden Press, New York.
Brondizio, E. S., R. R. Sears, et al. (2011). The Várzea: Old challenges and new demands for integrated research in the coming decade. Pages 347-358 in The Amazon Várzea: The decade past and the decade ahead. M. Pinedo-Vasquez, M. Ruffino, C. Padoch and E. S. Brondizio. New York, Springer Publishers and The New York Botanical Garden Press:.
Sears, RR & M Pinedo-Vasquez. 2004. Axing the trees, growing the forest: smallholder timber production on the Amazon várzea. Pages 258-275 in DJ Zarin, JRR Alavalapati, FE Putz, & M Schmink (eds). Working Forests in the Tropics: Conservation through sustainable management? Columbia University Press, New York.
Other publications
Sears, RR. 2006. Rural Poverty Alleviation and Biodiversity Conservation, Education module. Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, American Museum of Natural History, New York.
Sears, RR. 2005. An environmentally sustainable planet. The Optimist. Jun 3: 47-50.
UN Millennium Project [D Melnick, Y Kakabadse, G Schmidt-Traub, RR Sears and Task Force 6]. 2005. Environment and Human Well-being: A Practical Strategy. EarthScan, New York.
Sears, RR. 2001. Scientific report for WWF/National Geographic Ecoregions [26 Amazonian ecoregions]. Available at www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld.
Presentations (only most recent)
2009 “Ecological education and rural development”, Ecological Society of America, 6 Aug, invited oral presentation, abstract.
2009 “Interdisciplinary education and research through international reciprocity”, National Conference on Undergraduate Research, Faculty section, Apr, oral presentation
2008 “Growing edges in education: Interdisciplinary teaching and research through international reciprocity”, Ecological Society of America, Milwaukee, WI, 7 Aug, oral presentation, abstract. [Robin R. Sears, Paul Houlihan, Katlyn Osgood, and Lili Batchelder. The School for Field Studies] “Logging policy and forest conservation in Peru: a critique”, Society for Conservation Biology, Chattanooga, TN, Jul, Oral presentation, abstract [with Miguel Pinedo-Vasquez] “From fallow timber to urban housing: tablilla production and marketing in Peru”, Social Life of Forests Conference, University of Chicago, May, invited speaker
2006 "Poverty alleviation and smallholder resource management", Ecological Society of America, Memphis, 6 Aug. Invited speaker.
2005 "The changing nature of ribeirinho land use in the dynamic environments of the várzea", Society for Conservation Biology, Brasilia, Brazil, 18 Jul. Invited speaker, abstract.
