Led by Dr. Janette Bulkan, the PIF lab takes a political ecology approach in exploring the relationships and struggles, both material and semiotic, between communities and their customary territories. Learn about what Dr. Bulkan’s current students are working on here.

Political ecology
A multidimensional social and political view of peoples, lands, and resources

Land and resource systems
Timber, minerals or intangibles from the land used by forest-dependent peoples

Customary territories
The lands and territories of Indigenous peoples and local communities

I take a political ecology approach in exploring the relationships and struggles, both material and semiotic, between communities and their customary territories. My work has explored how those struggles have intensified over time in tandem with increasing, even though uneven, recognition of the property rights of forest-dependent peoples. I explore the manifestations of new forms of enclosures, both de jure and de facto, often mediated by the power of the State and its allies. Those enclosures are often not about the land itself but about ensuring continuing access to the timber or minerals or intangibles from that land that are often incorporated into complex anastomosing supply chains. Simultaneously, I try to make visible the subaltern constituencies and voices that struggle to have their interests recognized, drawing on the texts of rights-based domestic law, international Conventions and Declarations and the support of national and international networks.

Members of the PIF lab are active in numerous research studies and community-based projects around the globe. Our research focuses on emerging issues in political ecology, resource management, and global governance systems.

Food systems
The multifaceted significance of food for traditional management, knowledge,. and cultural systems

Global environmental change
Understanding the impacts of social and environmental change for forest-dependent peoples

Equitable relationships
Challenging harmful power dynamics in research and principled relationships with local communities

Members of the PIF lab work in collaboration with communities around the world. Click through the map below to learn more about our research.

There are many ways to connect with the PIF lab. Whether through email, a graduate program, or collaborating on a project, we welcome messages and opportunities to connect.

UBC
Click here to learn about faculty, research, and projects at the UBC Faculty of Forestry

Graduate programs
Click here to learn about graduate programs at the UBC Faculty of Forestry

Email
Click here to learn how to get in touch with the head of the PIF lab, Dr. Janette Bulkan