Research Week, May 2-6, 2022
The Presidential Career Research Award Speaker Series Presents: Randall Bluffstone - Forest management, Technologies and Ecosystem Services
Forests are amazing! They simultaneously produce a variety of ecosystem services for people, including fuels, which are critical to about a billion people worldwide, mainly in lower-income countries. Forests also provide regulating services like carbon sequestration and offer places for recreation and health renewal, among many other benefits. This presentation will discuss research focusing on the implications of community forest management for ecosystem services. It will also discuss recent evaluations of improved biomass stoves in low and medium-income countries, shedding light on the contributions such technologies can make to the environment and human well-being. RSVP here.
Randy Bluffstone is Professor of Economics and Director of the Institute for Economics and the Environment at Portland State University. He is also co-facilitator of the Environment for Development (EfD) Initiative and associate editor at the journal Forest Economics. Prior to coming to Portland State, he taught at the University of Redlands and until September 1999 was deputy director of the International Environment Program at the Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID) at Harvard University.
Professor Bluffstone’s research and teaching interests focus on environmental and natural resource economics, including pollution policies, climate change, deforestation in low-income countries and urban forests. He is the author of a number of papers, book chapters and three edited books. Most recently, Forest Tenure Reform in Asia and Africa: Local Control for Improved Livelihoods, Forest Management, and Carbon Sequestration with Elizabeth J. Z. Robinson. Randy is currently working on an introductory environmental economics textbook for students with little or no economics background.
Professor Bluffstone has lived and worked in a number of countries. In 2017/2018, he was a Fulbright Senior Research Scholar in Nepal, focusing on forests and climate change. In 2006 to 2007 Professor Bluffstone conducted collaborative research in Ethiopia related to land use and forestry policies. While at Harvard, Bluffstone directed HIID’s environmental policy program in Central Asia, and from 1994 to 1997 served as resident senior environmental policy advisor to the Government of Lithuania. Randy received his Ph.D. in economics from Boston University in 1993 and from 1983-85 was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal.
Additional Link
Randy Bluffstone website
Continental breakfast will be provided.
Thursday, May 5, 2022
9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
Smith Memorial Student Union, Room 294
RSVP here
Requests for reasonable accommodations may be made to the Campus Events & Student Union office, 503.725.2663, email: conferences@pdx.edu or the Disability Resource Center, 503.725.4150, email: drc@pdx.edu. In order to ensure that reasonable accommodations can be provided in time for this event, please make your requests as soon as possible.