Research Interests:

• Community-Based Natural Resource Management
• Adaptation to Environmental Change
• Payment for Environmental Services
• Water, Grasslands and Forest Management
• Perceptions on Climate-Water-Ecosystem Relations
• Latin America

My research seeks to better understand how rural communities in the Global South impact their environment and how they respond to changes in the natural resource systems that they depend on for their livelihoods. In the context of global climate change, a critical question in local resource management is how communities change their resource use behaviors, both with regards to mitigation (or activities aimed at reducing the problem of CO2 emissions) and adaptation (activities aimed to cope with uncertain environmental variability such as natural hazards). My research aims to contribute to these questions by examining how rural communities in Latin America adapt to environmental variability, and work to mitigate environmental degradation. Specifically, my work focuses on water, paramos (high-altitude grassland) and forest management.

Contact information:

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES and INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC SERVICE | SEATTLE UNIVERSITY

901 12th Ave, Seattle, WA 98122

Office: Casey 310-18

Phone: (206) 296 2088 | Email: murtinhf@seattleu.edu