Van Nguyen

I am pursuing the hybrid academic-practitioner path, with a Ph.D. in environmental science and over 10 years of experiences working for a Hanoi-based conservation organization (www.nature.org.vn). I am passionate about working with diverse actors on the policy-science-society interface to seek new transformative and sustainable solutions for both people and nature in Vietnam, mainland Southeast Asia and other Global South countries. I use an interdisciplinary environmental social approach, mixing Political Ecology and Critical Institutionalism to debunk myths about what happens ‘beneath the surface’ of the contemporary environmental dynamics and changes. I also track actor’s power and agency within the different governance settings of efforts to ‘fix’ the current environmental changes. My research interests include impacts of layer-upon-layer environmental policies, environmental and development nexus, ecosystem services, land-based climate change mitigation and conservation in developing countries (jurisdictional REDD+, nature-based solutions, carbon insetting, BioTrade and mainstreaming biodiversity conservation into different economic sectors), community and ethnic minority/indigenous knowledge and people.