FSE/IPER graduate student Rodrigo Pizarro named Teresa Heinz Scholar for Environmental Research

The grant will go toward supporting Rodrigo Pizarro's research on the impact of the world diffusion of conservation policy on biodiversity with special reference to Latin America.

Project Summary:

Pizarro draws from Institutional Theory to examine the accelerated adoption of conservation policies across the globe, particularly in Latin America. Although there is a remarkable convergence across countries in the ‘formal' policy of biodiversity conservation, through the establishment of protected areas, there exists a wide variety of experiences in implementation and outcomes. Pizarro seeks to understand what explains observed differences in practice by understanding the ‘structuration of the organizational field' - the exchange, interests and interplay of organizations - in selected countries. This approach can help explain why, despite having fairly similar formal policies, nations have a wide variety of implementation experiences. Further, he expect the results to provide insights to improve environmental policy implementation and thus provide guidelines for inter-governmental organizations or international non-government organizations in their support of developing countries' conservation programs.