Elizabeth Shapiro
Coordinator, Applied Biodiversity Science NSF-IGERT Program

Email: 
Telephone: (979) 845-7494
Fax: (979) 845-4096
Office: 110G Old Heep Bldg.

Mailing Address:
216 Old Heep Bldg.
2258 TAMU, Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-2258

CV

RESEARCH PROGRAM

My research concerns Market-Based Conservation in Latin America. I conduct multi-scale analyses of these systems in the context of:

• Community level socioeconomic, institutional and ecological impacts

• Political, policy and market drivers

• Environmental state and non-state governance

The research I have conducted thus far has examined these themes in the context of the national payments for ecosystem services programs in Mexico, cacao agroforestry systems in protected areas in Panama and Costa Rica, and coffee sustainability certification programs in El Salvador. My approach to analyzing these systems is to examine the international economic trends, policies and discourse that drive them combined with participatory, community-level research on their social and ecological impacts to develop a holistic analysis of issues of environmental degradation and conservation in Latin America.

EDUCATION

University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D., May, 2010 (expected)
Environmental Science, Policy & Management

Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
M.E.Sc., 2003
Human Ecology

Oberlin College
B.A., 1993
Biology and Environmental Studies

School for Field Studies
Queensland, Australia, 1990
Rainforest Biogeography

PUBLICATIONS

Doctoral Dissertation

To Revalue the Countryside? Transformation of the Mexican Federal Payment for Ecosystem Services Programs from Neoliberal Notion to Development Dogma

Peer Reviewed Articles

McAfee, K. & E.N. Shapiro (Equal Authorship). Forthcoming. Payment for ecosystem services in Mexico: Neoliberalism, social movements and the state. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, July 2010. (pdf)

Méndez, V. E., E.N. Shapiro and G.S. Gilbert. 2009. Cooperative management and its effects on shade tree diversity, soil properties and ecosystem services of coffee plantations in western El Salvador. Special Issue on Agroforestry for Ecosystem Services and Environmental Benefits. Agroforestry Systems, 76, 111-126. (pdf)

Boucher, D., T. Johns, D. Roth, D. Schwartzman and E. N. Shapiro. 2008. Tropical deforestation and climate change: The science and the policy. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, 89 (4), 475-480. (pdf)

Connelly, A. and E.N. Shapiro. 2006. Agricultural expansion by smallholders as a threat to the ecological integrity of La Amistad Biosphere Reserve: Perceived vs. real impacts of cacao and cattle. Journal of Sustainable Forestry, 22 (1/2), 115-141. (pdf)

Working Papers

Shapiro, E.N. Contesting the neoliberal nature of the Mexican national payments for ecosystem services programs: Four sites of articulation and hybridization. [For submission to invited special issue of Geoforum on Market-Oriented Conservatio

Shapiro, E.N., B.H.J. De Jong, P. Bauche-Petersen, G. Ramirez-Ramirez. Mexico’s payments for ecosystem services program: Lessons for the design of Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) mechanisms. [For submission to Global Environmental Change]

Shapiro, E.N., R. Woodward, A. Stronza & L. Fitzgerald. Drawing the line: A multidisciplinary critique of the theory and practice of market-based conservation. [For submission to Conservation Biology]

Shapiro. E.N. Rural social movements and environmental citizenship: The impact of alternative narratives on the Mexican national payments for ecosystem services programs [For submission to World Development]

Books & Book Chapters

Shapiro, E.N. and P. Fadem. 2008. Forests. In J. Conant and P. Fadem (ed.), A Community Guide to Environmental Health, Hesperian Foundation, Berkeley, CA, pp. 175-198. (pdf)

Shapiro, E.N. and P. Fadem. 2008. Restoring land and planting trees. In J. Conant and P. Fadem (ed.), A Community Guide to Environmental Health, Hesperian Foundation, Berkeley, CA, pp. 199-216. (pdf)

Conant, J. and E.N. Shapiro. 2008. Protecting watersheds. In J. Conant and P. Fadem (ed.), A Community Guide to Environmental Health, Hesperian Foundation, Berkeley, CA. pp. 279-318. (pdf)

Shapiro, E.N. 2006. Interview: Jesús León Santos, Integral Peasant Development Center of the Mixteca (CEDICAM), Mexico. Eds. A. Cohn, et al., Agroecology and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty in the Americas. International Institute for Environment and Development, London, Great Britain, pp. 160-163. (pdf)

Shapiro, E.N. and A.B. Tran. 1998. Acciones Ambientales para el Mejoramiento del Medio Ambiente en las Comunidades Rurales [Environmental Actions for Improving the Environment of Rural Communities]. (240 pgs.). Fondo Inciativa para las Americas de El Salvador/Research Triangle Institute/GreenCom. San Salvador, El Salvador.

Shapiro, E.N. and T. Chadwell. 1998. Arboles de Usos Múltiples en El Salvador: Un Manual para Propagación y Reforestación [Multiple Use Trees of El Salvador: A Guide for Propagation and Reforestation]. (92 pgs.). USAID & Peace Corps. San Salvador, El Salvador.

Selected Outreach Publications

Shapiro, E.N. 2006 - 2008. Community Forum of the Ecosystem Marketplace, Vol. 1, No. 4 & 5; Vol. 2, No. 1-9; Vol. 3 No. 1,
Link: http://ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/static/signup.php