María Alejandra Vélez, PhD

I am a Full Professor at the Faculty of Economics, Universidad de Los Andes. I served as the Director of the Center for the Study of Security and Drugs (CESED) from 2019 to 2024 and currently direct the Rural Development, Illicit Economies, and Environment Area at CESED. Member of the National Colombian Brain Trust of the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT)  and  Senior Fellow EfD. My research interests focus on governance and institutional design for natural resource management in rural communities of the global south. I am studying the effect of payment of environmental services on conservation outcomes; the impacts of collective property-rights regimes on institutional changes, landscape, and welfare of Afro-Colombian communities on the Pacific Coast, and the strategies for gold mining formalization. Recently, I have focused on the effects of illicit economies and drug policies on natural resources, the models for cannabis regulation in Colombia and the impact of drug policies on communities’ wellbeing and security outcomes. 

During  the fall of 2024, I was the Tinker visiting Professor at the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University, NYC. More information here: https://ilas.columbia.edu/visiting-scholars-and-fellows