Rebecca Witter is a postdoctoral researcher in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability. An environmental anthropologist by training (University of Georgia, 2010), her interests and expertise span the human dimensions of environment and include: the relationships between rights and environment; global environmental politics and decision-making; land, tree, and resource tenure; human-wildlife conflict and other multi-species relations; human mobility, displacement and resettlement; and landscape history. She has conducted ethnographic, interdisciplinary, and collaborative research in Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, Brazil, Japan, and the United States. She has received funding from the American Association of University Women, Fulbright Institute of International Education, National Science Foundation, Social Science and Humanities Resource Council, Swedish Research Council, World Agroforestry Center, and Transboundary Protected Areas Research Initiative. Witter has published in Conservation Biology, Conservation and Society,Global Environmental Change, Journal of Sustainable Forestry, Policy Matters, and Source.
In collaboration with her advisor, Terre Satterfield, Witter’s current research evaluates the range of metrics, approaches and indicators for recognizing, protecting and advancing human rights in various environmental management contexts (e.g., species conservation, resource extraction, and payment for ecosystem services) and assesses the implications of these approaches for achieving rights integration. She also continues her long-term research on resource tenure, conservation-related displacement and resettlement, and resettlement compensation in Mozambique’s Limpopo National Park.
