Carolyn Peach Brown is an Assistant Professor and Director of Environmental Studies, a multidisciplinary liberal arts and science program, at the University of Prince Edward Island , PEI, Canada. Her research focuses on environmental governance and issues of sustainability that balance social, ecological and economic interests. Environmental sustainability in complex social-ecological systems depends on the interaction between natural systems and governance institutions. The way in which different institutional configurations of the state, the private sector and civil society interact to govern the environment has implications in many international and Canadian jurisdictions. In particular, she explores the roles played by local institutions, communities and civil society groups in environmental management, and how these institutions interface with other actors in multi-level governance systems, in the context of changing policy and a changing climate. Her research draws on concepts and insights from interdisciplinary bodies of scholarship including commons theory, resilience thinking, social learning theory, adaptive governance, the natural sciences, development practice, and the policy and public administration literature.
While previously obtaining both a Bachelor of Science, Honours (Acadia University) and a Master of Science (University of Guelph) in the natural sciences, she ventured into the social sciences for her PhD. Carolyn completed her PhD in Natural Resource Policy and Management at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York in 2005.Prior to doing her PhD she worked for over 10 years in Central Africa at the local level in agricultural and community development. Her doctoral research in community-based management of forest resources in Cameroon was informed by her background in ecology and her professional experience in the Congo Basin. Following her PhD, Carolyn was a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Postdoctoral Fellow in the Global Environmental Change Group, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Recent Publications
Brown, H.C. Peach, Nkem, J. Ndi, Sonwa, D. and Y. Bele. 2010. Institutional adaptive capacity and climate change response in the Congo Basin forests of Cameroon. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 15: 263-282.
Brown, H.C. Peach and J.P. Lassoie. 2010. Institutional choice and local legitimacy in community-based forest management: Lessons from Cameroon. Environmental Conservation 37 (3): 1-10. (Special thematic section: Community-based natural resource management: designing the next generation).
Brown, H.C. Peach and J.P. Lassoie. 2010. The interaction between market forces and management systems: A case study of non-wood forest products in the humid forest zone of Cameroon. International Forestry Review 12 (1): 13-26.
Brown, H.C. Peach. 2009. Climate change and Ontario forests: Prospects for building institutional adaptive capacity. Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change 14: 513-536.
Brown, H.C. Peach, Buck, L. and J.P. Lassoie. 2008. Governance and social learning in the management of non-wood forest products in community forests in Cameroon.International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology 7 (3): 256-275.
Brown, H.C. Peach, Wolf, S. and J.P. Lassoie. 2007. An analytic approach to structuring co-management of community forests in Cameroon. Progress in Development Studies 7 (2): 135-155.
Contact:
Director of Environmental Studies
Assistant Professor
University of Prince Edward Island
Charlottetown, PEI, Canada C1A 4P3
