Leticia Merino, PHD. Has a PHD in Anthropology from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), a Masters in Population and Development (Jawarharlal Nehru University), a Masters on Sociology (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales), and studies on Forest Governance (Workshop for Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University) and Sustainable Development (Colegio de México).
For more than 30 years LM has taken part, as coordinator and team member, of research projects on socio-environmental themes, particularly on natural resources and ecosystem management by rural/indigenous communities, focusing on forest and bio-diversity use, commons governance and more recently on impacts of extractive economies on local sustainability and pease. She collaborated for 15 years, in research and teaching projects on community forestry with Dr. Elinor Ostrom, Nobel Price on Economics, 2009.
LM has authored and coauthored more than 80 articles and book chapters, as well as six books, among them: The Community Forests of Mexico (with David Bray and Deborah Barry), A vuelo pájaro. Condiciones de las comunidades con bosques templados en México (with Ana Eugenia Martínez), and Crisis Ambiental en México. Rutas para el Cambio (coord). Since 1995 LM is a professor at the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, and teacher at the Postgraduate Program on Sustainability Sciences at UNAM. Since 2016 she chairs UNAM Seminar “”Sociedad, Medio Ambiente e Instituciones”, where she coordinated research and advocacy programs with the collaboration of 40 academicas and NGO members. Merino has also been invited teacher at: FLACSO México, Instituto Dr. José Ma. Luis Mora, FLACSO Guatemala, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Programa Salvadoreño de Investigación Ambiental, McGuill University, Indiana University, Universidad Pública de Pamplona, the University of Gloucesershire, Universidad Michoacana and Universidad Nacional de San Simón, Bolivia.
From 2011 to 2013 she was president of the International Association for the Study of the Commons (IASC). She has received diverse recognitions:
- the Award: “Enrique Beltrán” in recognition for her contributions to the sustainable use of biodiversity in Mexico, given by the Universidad de Guadalajara and the Ministry of Environment of Mexico.
- the award: “la Herencia” from the Unión de Comunidades Forestales de la Sierra Norte de Puebla,
- the top level (III) of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores (since 2006) (given to the top 2000 researches in Mexico, given by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Teconología,
- In 2015 Merino was acknowledged as the third UNAM most quoted author in Social Sciences.
- Since 2016 she was appointed as a member of the Committee for Development policies of the United Nations.
- From 2018 to 2019 she was a Lead author of the Inter-governmental panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystems.
- In 2019 she became a Lead Fellow of the Earth System Governance project.
