Esteve Corbera (PhD Development Studies, 2006, U. of East Anglia) is ICREA Research Professor at the Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA) and Department of Geography, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. His research focuses on human-nature relationships and the impact of social, policy and environmental change on resource governance, mostly in the global South. He has written over 120 peer-reviewed articles, several books and book chapters, and served as guest editor in 14 special issues. He has been awarded an ERC-Synergy grant (2025); led the second 'Maria de Maeztu' programme of excellence of ICTA-UAB (2020-2025), been a subject editor of the journal Ecology & Society since 2021 (previously of Geoforum), and participated in the 2014 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He was among the world’s most cited multidisciplinary scientists over four consecutive years (2019-2022, cross-field category, Clarivate analytics).
Research interests
I am a political ecologist building knowledge on the environmental and wellbeing outcomes of climate change and biodiversity conservation policies and producing scientific findings that inform global policies for sustainable land use. I employ multiple quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate 1) the social-ecological and behavioral effects of policies aimed at conserving biodiversity and mitigating climate change, such as payments for ecosystem services, the UN Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) framework, and biodiversity offsets; 2) the implications of global change for the vulnerability and resilience of farming communities, and their capacity to adapt; and 3) the politics of knowledge production in conservation and environmental science and policy. My research in these fields draws on data from multiple levels, from multi-actor views gathered ethnographically to secondary information collected for quantitative assessments.
Selected publications
- Barral S, Ghosh R & Corbera E 2025, 'The politics of influence in biodiversity offsetting', Nature sustainability, vol. 8, 350-357.
- Boixeda PR, Corbera E & Loos J 2025, 'Navigating a global crisis: impacts, responses, resilience, and the missed opportunity of African protected areas during the COVID-19 pandemic', Ecology and society, 30 - 4 - 28.
- Villamayor-Tomas S, Gaitán-Cremaschi D, Corbera E, Pierri-Daunt AB & Santos de Lima L. 2025, 'Vulnerability to climate change, depopulation and the global food regime: An index-based approach for rural Spain', Environmental Science & Policy, vol. 174, 104254.
- Izquierdo-Tort S, Alatorre A, Shapiro-Garza E, Corbera E, et al. G 2025, 'Payments for ecosystem services in Mexico: Two decades of progress and challenges between research and practice', Ecosystem services, vol. 73, art. 101720.
- Villan A, Villamayor-Tomás S & Corbera E 2025, 'Family farm succession and agroecology? A life-history approach to young farmers’ sustainability strategies', Journal of Rural Studies 120,103815.
Selected research activities
Awarded an ERC-Synergy grant, with Jun Borras (U of Rotterdam), Ian Scoones (U of Sussex) and Anna Tsing (Aarhus U), for the project "Land and life in the Anthropocene: Landscape Reform".
Ongoing PhD supervision (5) and postdoctoral mentorship (2).
Invited talk: 'Government and NGO efforts in curbing deforestation in Colombia's Amazon', University of Bangor, UK, September 18th.
Lecturer in the courses "Political Ecology" (MSc in Sustainability, UAB) and "Research design for PhDs" (MSc and PhDs, ICTA-UAB).
External examiner of a PhD dissertation (University of Edinburgh).
Director of two completed MSc dissertations and one Beatriu de Pinós grant.
Reviewer for the ERC (1 StG) and the Swedish research council for sustainable development (9 proposals of 38, acting as final rapporteur of one).
Regular subject editor work, Ecology & Society.
Interviewed at "Els Matins de TV3", 20 min, over the EU's plans to expand carbon offsetting. July 4th.