KU Leuven

VSPW

Ghent University

Heeft gestudeerd aan de/het Universiteit Gent

FOD Financiën - SPF Finances

Attaché Expertise

KIK-IRPA

Documentalist

INBO (Research Institute for Nature and Forest)

Social Researcher

VISO Gent

Dutch Second Language Teacher

Teach for Belgium offers a leadership development program for recent graduates, young professionals and career changers who want to tackle educational inequalities in Belgium by teaching in schools with a low socio-economic index.

Teach for Belgium

Participant @ Teach for Belgium

PCVO Dender en Schelde

Facilitating workshops, developing workshops in team, gathering relevant information, providing feedback on the workshops.

Studio Globo vzw

Workshop facilitator

Anthropological research on park-people conflicts between inhabitants of Indigenous Territories and Amacayacu National Park.

Abstract:
This thesis discusses co-management and conflicts in the overlap zones between Indigenous Territories and Amacayacu National Park (ANP) in the Colombian Amazon from a political ecology perspective. First, an extensive literature review discusses the state of the art of resource management and co-management. Second, the case-study of ANP is situated within the current conservation and development debates. Third, the communities overlapping ANP are presented from a cultural, historic and political perspective with a focus on resource conservation. For the results of this thesis, 55 structured interviews were conducted in the overlapping communities of San Martín de Amacayacu, Palmeras, Mocagua and Macedonia which were complemented with open interviews, everyday conversations and participant observations. The focus of the fieldwork was on the fulfillment of ten enabling conditions for co-management  (isolated by De Pourq et al. 2015: 2) as perceived by the residents of the overlapping communities and their reported experience of (park-people) conflicts. The high disparity between responses of the interviewees of the different overlapping communities demonstrate the importance of adapting  (co-) management systems and agreements to their specific contexts. The results of the research show there is an urgent need in all overlapping communities of ANP for strengthening co-management relations and especially for setting up platforms for conflict resolution.

Universiteit Gent

Master Thesis Project

Anthropological research on park-people conflicts between wood collectors from Arba Minch and Nechisar National Park.

This research was framed in the VLIR-UOS project “Land and water research for sustainable livelihood in the south Ethiopian Rift Valley”.

Abstract: 
In this thesis, the multi-layered relationships between the wood collectors of Arba Minch, a town located in Ethiopia’s southern Rift Valley, and Nechisar National Park (NNP), where they collect their wood, are discussed and contextualised from an anthropological perspective. In Arba Minch and NNP basic household needs and nature conservation have competing demands on natural resources: the wood from the 9,8km² riverine forest inside the park is the main source of heating for most people living in Arba Minch. Based on political ecology and by combining a literature survey and a three month fieldwork in Arba Minch consisting of participant observation, collecting gray literature and stakeholder interviews, the multi-layered and complex social realities of the wood collectors of Arba Minch and a social history of NNP are presented and analysed. Two strategies by which the wood collectors (with some degree of community cooperation) respond to the exclusive management approach of NNP are discerned: adaptation and (legitimate and
illegitimate) resistance. These strategies demonstrate that the capacity of the Ethiopian state to coerce its citizens into unpopular conservation programmes is limited. To conclude, three causes that lie at the root of the deforestation in NNP are discerned.

VLIR-UOS

Developing and conducting interviews, recording interviews, editing audio clips, participating in meetings, content development, administrative work.

Editorial Assistant Intern

Stad Gent, TMVW, Sport Oase

Lifeguard

Saskia Wanner