School of Earth and Environment

Mireia Pecurul-Botines Mireia Pecurul-Botines

Postgraduate Student / Marie Curie EST Researcher

Telephone number: +44(0) 113 34 35572
Email address: m.pecurul@leeds.ac.uk
Room: 9.124

Biography

  • Master Science of European Forestry (2002-2003)
  • Engineering in Forestry (1994-2002)

Previous experience

Research

Project title: Institutional economics: the cost implications of the mismatch of scales of governance of biodiversity and water in Europe.

Supervisors: Jouni Paavola, Klaus Hubacek, Andy Gouldson

Start date:1st May 2007

Research Interests

  • Multilevel governance in forestry and biodiversity conservation policies.
  • Institutional economics: Performance and design of institutions to improve the effectiveness of the outcomes. Cross-case comparison analysis.
  • Human Health dimensions of Environment.

Mireia is the Early Stage Researcher based at SRI Leeds. Overall, her current research questions aims at understanding why some institutional responses to environmental problems are more successful than others and how we can structure institutions to maximize their performance in implementation of forestry and biodiversity conservation policies.

Mireia's dissertation aims at understanding the quality of "fit" between the current multi-level governance solutions for biodiversity in Europe and the physical and social system in governs, and the governance cost implications of the fit. This work will draw from literature on common property and Community Based Nature Resources Management and literature on to develop an analytical framework for the study of multi-level governance of biodiversity in Europe. Research will be based on a case study approach (Yin 1984). At least U.K and Spain will be potential countries to undertake case studies. Mireia is jointly supervised by Dr. Jouni Paavola, Dr. Andrew Gouldson and Klaus Hubacek.

Mireia's original background is in the field of Forest Management and European Forestry. In 2003 she completed her Forestry studies in the Finnish Forest Research Institute (Finland) with special emphasis on the comparative analysis of biodiversity indicators in forests of (Pinus sylvestris) in Spain, Germany and Finland. This rewarding experience gave her an outstanding overview of forest policy and biodiversity monitoring at EU level. Besides her academic background, between August 2003 and April 2007, Mireia gained professional experience in policy making and implementation as a junior researcher in the department of forest policy at the Forest Technological Center of Catalonia (CTFC). There, she experienced first hand how to deal with participation between different stakeholders in the edition of the "regional forest plan of Catalonia". Furthermore, she gained an insight into diverse environmental policy governance processes in Europe as researcher engaged in the project "New Modes of Governance for Sustainable Forestry in Europe" (GoFOR). Finally, Mireia was also actively involved in the Action COST E39 " Forests, Trees and Human Health and Wellbeing".

In this frame, she coordinated the national report from Spain and disseminated the main findings through conferences and seminars. Furthermore, she obtained a fellowship from the COST office, European Commission, which I held in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ) (Switzerland). This rewarding experience woke her interest to address the human dimensions of land-use policies in order to enhance both the human well-being and the quality of natural environment.

Mireia holds a Spanish citizenship, and is fluent in Catalan, Spanish, and English. In her spare time she enjoys outdoor activities, yoga and cooking and eating with friends.

Publications