Kimberly Carlson
Adviser: Lisa CurranDegrees
BS, Biological Sciences, Stanford University
About
My research focuses on the effects of land use change on people and ecosystems. I am interested in how social processes and ecological dynamics interact and shape land use transitions around agricultural intensification in the tropics. By assessing the full costs and benefits - including traditionally undervalued “ecosystem services” - of competing land uses, I believe that local communities and policymakers can adapt incentives to alter trajectories of land use transitions to become more sustainable and equitable. For my dissertation, I am examining how rapid expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesian Borneo affects land use, livelihoods, and ecosystem services at local-to-regional scales.
