Currently, I am an Assistant Professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University. As an environmental scientist and common-pool resource scholar, I work at the interface of natural and social sciences to understand how institutions – which include policies, rules, or norms – mediate the interactions between humans and natural resources, affect outcomes for natural resource sustainability and equity, and can incentivize human adaptation and collective response to both ecological and social change. My research centers on institutions that influence governance of natural resources such as inland and marine fisheries, as well as other natural resources as they relate to food production for human consumption, nutrition security, and the balance between environmental protection and people’s livelihoods.
Previously, I held the position of Sustainable Seafood Project Manager at the Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, where I worked on developing engagement programs for the seafood retail industry on incorporating procurement practices that prioritized sustainability of aquatic food products. I am also part of the Illuminating Hidden Harvests initiative: The contributions of small-scale fisheries to sustainable development (IHH), for which I served as Technical Lead during my postdoctoral work at Duke University. As such, I co-authored the IHH report (a partnership between Duke University, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and WorldFish) as well as its accompanying guide on the Approach of the IHH report, which highlights the global importance of the contributions of both inland and marine small-scale fisheries to multiple aspects of sustainable development, including nutrition and food security, employment, economic benefits, and in consideration of their environmental, gender, and governance implications throughout the supply chain, with the goal of improving the sector’s visibility in policy and decision-making arenas.
Please visit my Research page for updates on current research projects.
Maria del Mar Mancha-Cisneros 