I am a human-environmental geographer with a general interest in indigenous and peasant livelihoods in Neotropical forests.
My research centers on the ways in which rural households make a living from traditional agriculture and natural resource use practices,
their impact on the environment, and on their vulnerability, and potential for adaptation to environmental change in tropical regions of
Latin America, especially the Peruvian Amazon. I use a mixed-method approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods to address relevant questions around rural livelihoods at local and regional scales.
Publications
My students
Combining ethnographic methods with community and household surveys, and social network analysis,
I examine how geographical, microeconomic, relational, and structural factors shape rural settlement, resource use, and vulnerability in Neotropical forests.
My work draws primarily on empirical field-based research in Latin America, starting with my MA research near the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula two decades ago and have been working in Amazonia (especially Peru) since. I have also supervised field-based research in the Darien Region in Panama.
Research interests
1. Rural livelihoods, conservation and development
2. Human adaptation to environmental change
3. Social networks, rural life and economic livelihoods
Discover the Amazon
University of Toronto | St. George
Sydney Smith Hall, Room 5055
100 St. George St.
Toronto, ON
M5S 3G3
Canada
Email: christian.abizaid@utoronto.ca
christianabizaid.org
Christian Abizaid 