Wolfram
Dressler
Associate Professor
School of Geography
My research examines human-environment relations following a critical political ecology approach, with a focus on conservation, development and agrarian change. Ethnographic in nature, my research examines how regional political economic processes shape resource access and use, exchange relations and environmental change at different societal scales in Southeast Asia. Since 1999, I have examined the historical origins and contemporary consequences of changing conservation practices on the livelihoods and landscapes of rural, resource-reliant peoples in insular Southeast Asia, and particularly on the frontier island of Palawan, the Philippines. I use this frame to critically examine the spread, impact and outcomes of neoliberalism on conservation, livelihoods, and landscapes in the context of protected areas, market-based governance (REDD, PES etc) and resource commodity chains.