My research is mainly concerned with the role that rural communities can have in conservation issues. Over the last few years, I have been working in the Sumaco Biosphere Reserve in the Ecuadorian Amazon, concentrating on socio-economic factors and land-use in indigenous Kichwa communities. Specifically, how these factors translate into environmental impacts and whether these impacts feedback to the communities themselves in the form of local management regimes. I have also worked on trying to get communities involved in biodiversity monitoring and devising appropiate biodiversity indicators. As of 2012, I will be based at Washington State University as a post-doctoral researcher and will be working on food security policies and their impact on biodiversity in Brazil.