Mirjam Ros-Tonen

Dr Mirjam Ros-Tonen is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, Planning and International Development Studies of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. After having worked on the interactions between governance and forest-based livelihoods and ‘win-win’ strategies to development and conservation such as trading non-timber forest products, she realized that such win-win scenarios would be hard to realize in natural forests. Since then, her interest has shifted towards multifunctional landscapes, exploring how such landscapes can be governed from an integrated perspective for sustainable livelihoods and provision of environmental services, food security and climate resilience. The geographical focus of her research is on Ghana and South Africa, while PhD supervision has also included research in Brazil, Honduras, Cameroon, Kenya and Indonesia. Ms. Ros-Tonen currently coordinates the NWO-WOTRO-funded programmes on ‘Inclusive partnerships and innovation platforms for sustainable landscapes and greater food sovereignty among tree crop farmers in Ghana and South Africa’ and the ‘TREEFARMS’ project in Ghana that seeks to find ways to improve farmers’ food security through the introduction of shade-tolerant non-timber forest products in forest restoration schemes and tree farms.