DR. CECILIA TURIN

Areas of Expertise

Andean Pastoralism; Mountain Socioecosystems; Climate Change Adaptation, Gender; Indegenous knowledge; Rangeland Gonvernance; Rangeland degradation

Brief Bio

Dr. Cecilia Turin is an independent researcher, specialist in Andean Pastoralism and Mountain Socio-ecosystems. Cecilia has worked in different areas of agriculture from development, research and teaching, at international, government and private sector. She is currently member of PASTOAMERICAS, a Latin American network that represents academics and producers around pastoralist systems recognized by FAO. She is also a member of the McKnight Foundation's Andes Collaborative Crop Research Program community of practice, which promotes agroecology, holistic management and farmer-centered research.

From 2019 thru 2022 she has been a research leader in livestock and mountain socio-ecosystems for the NGO The Mountain Institute. In 2018 she has been a process specialist for the research of the National Program of Agricultural Innovation - PNIA, of the National Institute of Agricultural Research of Peru (NARS). In 2017, she has been a consultant for FAO and WB for Gender and Resilient Agriculture. From 2014 thru 2017 she was a postdoctoral scientist at the International Potato Center on Climate Change Adaptation and Gender, as well as gender focal point for the CGIAR global research programs on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security-CCAFS and Dryland Systems. From 2012 thru 2014 she was director of the Institute for Sustainable Smallholder Production at the National Agrarian University La Molina, a center for participatory action research. From 2004 thru 2014 she was professor at the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, teaching subjects on Andean Pastoral Systems and participatory agricultural research and extension in the Department of Animal Production of the School of Animal Science.

Dr. Turin is an interdisciplinary scientist with backgrounds in agricultural and social sciences. In 1998 she obtained degree as animal scientist from the Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Peru. In 2003 she obtained a master’s in Agricultural Extension and Teaching from Larenstein University of the Netherlands as Nuffic scholar. In 2012 she obtained the PhD degree in Rural Sociology from the University of Missouri of the United States as Fulbright scholar with a dissertation on degradation and governance of high Andean rangelands in Peru. In addition, Cecilia has done gender studies at Penn State University, gender trainings by CCAFS-CGIAR and was a visiting fellow at IFPRI in Gender, Collective action and Property rights. She has also trainings in sustainable livelihoods and Farmer-First by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She was a Fulbright NEXUS Regional Scholar Program Fellow in Social and Behavioral Adaptation to Climate Change between 2014 and 2016.

Since 1996 she has been involved in agricultural research projects, first from a productive perspective and later from a social perspective, in a climate change context and now in pandemic context. Her current research focuses on understanding the human dimensions of Andean socio-agroecological systems, and interactions with ecosystem services, to enhance the adaptive capacity and resilience of agricultural livelihoods to climate, social, and institutional changes. With a holistic perspective and landscape approach, she studies the social, organizational and institutional aspects of Andean pastoralist and agropastoral systems in regard to rangeland management and governance, addressing the indigenous knowledge, adaptation of grazing practices and strategies, and adaptation of management and governance institutions of rangelands, in relation to degradation, land tenure systems, migration, gender relations and social dynamics and power relations. She combines integrative frameworks and transformative approaches like holistic management, historical political ecology, agroecology, gender strategic research, collective action, participatory action research and community science. Her main geographic work area is the Andean humid and dry puna, but also has experience working with farmers of south and central Asian drylands.

Cecilia has several publications on various topics such as rangeland degradation, pastoralism, land use change, climate change adaptation and mitigation, landscapes transformation, soil carbon, gender, water quality. Her publications can be found in Research Gate, ORCID and Scopus.

Publications (Weblink only), if any:

• https://orcid.org/my-orcid?orcid=0000-0003-2597-7056
• https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=55999489000
• https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cecilia-Turin