Reyes García, Victoria
ICREA Research Professor at Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals - UAB (ICTA-UAB).
Social & Behavioural Sciences
Short biography
Victoria Reyes-García (PhD in Anthropology, 2001, Florida University) is ICREA Research Professor at the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). Her research focuses on Indigenous and local knowledge systems, particularly in relation to the natural environment, and on the relevance of these knowledge systems to understand and deal with the climate and environmental crises. She directs the Laboratory of Analysis of Social-Ecological Systems in a Global World, a research group that analyzes the impacts of global change on various socio-ecosystems. Her current ERC-funded project (LICCI) studies local perceptions of climate change impacts. She is co-author the Global Report of the Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). She is elected member of the National Academy of Science of the United States (2021).
Research interests
My research encompasses the interdisciplinary study of the dynamic relations among peoples, biota, and environments. I use a multidisciplinary perspective (working with ecologists, economists, psychologists, agronomists, archaeologists, and computer scientists) and empirical data to analyse 1) the effects of global change on rural livelihoods and local environments and 2) social responses to environmental changes. My research draws on insights from anthropology and the behavioural sciences to work at multiple levels- from the views of villagers in developing nations to those of policy-makers in industrial nations. My current areas of research include 1) local indicators of climate change impacts, 2) public participation in the documentation of local knowledge, 3) the adaptive nature of local environmental knowledge, 4) Indigenous peoples and cultural change, and 5) local participation in biodiversity conservation.