TCD congratulates Dr. Paula Pinheiro on her selection as the 2018 recipient of the M. Schmink Outstanding Dissertation Award!

 We are pleased to announce that Dr. Paula Soares Pinheiro is the 2018 winner of the Marianne Schmink Outstanding Dissertation Award from UF’s Tropical Conservation and Development Program. Dr. Pinheiro received her PhD in Interdisciplinary Ecology in 2018 from the School of Natural Resources and Environment (SNRE) program under the supervision of Dr. Stephen Perz. The outstanding dissertation award was established in 2010 in recognition of Dr. Marianne Schmink, former Director of the TCD Program for her significant and transformative contributions to graduate education, the Center for Latin American Studies and the TCD Program.

Dr. Pinheiro’s dissertation entitled “Co-management of Natural Resources in the Lower Juruá Extractive Reserve, Central-West Brazilian Amazon” exemplifies the interdisciplinary, theoretical and praxis-oriented aspects of the UF TCD Program. She explores community institutions for the governance and sustainable extraction of the world’s largest freshwater fish, Arapaima gigas, a species that is seeing rapidly increasing demand and is under threat in some regions. Dr. Pinheiro conducted her fieldwork in the Juruá, which is a key river in the Amazon; it spans national boundaries (from Peru to Brazil), is in one of the more conserved parts of the basin and is home to many communities reliant on terrestrial and aquatic natural resources for their livelihoods. She worked with communities that have established Extractive Reserves, an innovative model for resource management that combines conservation planning and community participation.

The selection committee noted that Dr. Pinheiro has made important contributions to a wide range of scholarship on extractive reserves, common property theory, social capital and fisheries co-management. In the words of her advisor, Dr. Stephen Perz, this is “a classic TCD dissertation” as it intersects with many areas of interest to the TCD program and has real-world implications in its results.

In Brazil, Dr. Pinheiro works as protected area manager for the federal government at the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio), which is responsible for 335 conservation units. At ICMBio, Dr. Pinheiro is able to bridge theory and practice and influence policies and strategies for conservation and development on the ground.

The Selection Committee was composed of TCD core faculty Dr. J. Richard Stepp (Center for Latin American Studies & Department of Anthropogy), and TCD affiliate faculty Dr. Damian Adams (School for Forest Resources and Conservation) and Dr. Claudia Romero (also TCD/UF Alumna, Department of Biology).