Ida Djenontin

I am a human-environment geographer with empirical research interests at the intersection of environmental governance and sustainable development. My primary regional expertise in the field of Environment and Development Geography is sub-Saharan Africa. My research addresses the implications, including slow-acting disasters, of interlinked environmental and climate changes on forested landscape ecosystems as resource commons. Notably, I examine the need/quest to balance biodiversity conservation, mitigation, sustainable natural resource-based livelihoods, food security, and socio-economic development goals. The aim of my interdisciplinary and problem-solving-oriented research is to contribute improved and effective governance and policy options for managing forest and agroecological systems sustainably for socioecological well-being. I use mixed methods - sourcing from qualitative, quantitative, and spatial methods and tools.

Before joining Penn State, I was a Postdoctoral Research Officer at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment of the London School of Economics & Political Sciences, U.K., with which I remain an affiliated as a Visiting Fellow. In the past, I worked with the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology and the Institute of the Environment, both at the University of Arizona. I was also a Young Professional Fellow with the African Union Development Agency - New Partnership of Africa Development (AUDA-NEPAD)’s Sustainable Land & Water Management Program in South Africa. Prior to graduate school, I worked with the Forest & Livelihoods Program at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) as a Dutch-sponsored Associate Professional Officer. I also worked at the Agricultural Policy Analysis Program of Benin’s National Institute of Agricultural Research, where I implemented some collaborated works with other CGIAR centers (CIP, AfricaRice, and IITA) and NORC-USA.

If you are a prospective graduate student with interests overlapping my research areas and interests, whether thematically or methodologically, please contact me. I would be glad to explore possibilities to work with you.

Education: 

• Dual Ph.D., Geography (Nature-Society Studies) and Environmental Science & Policy, Michigan State University, 2021
• M.Sc., Development Practice, University of Arizona, 2017
• M.A. & B.Sc., Agricultural Sciences, University of Parakou (Benin), 2010