Dr. Caroline de Souza Cruz Salomão - new staff member

Dr. Caroline Salomão is an interdisciplinary professional with a BSc in natural and social sciences, a master's in Environmental Systems Analysis and Modeling (UFMG, Brazil), and a PhD in Sanitation, Environment, and Water Resources (UFMG, Brazil), with research stays at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (Germany), Pontificia Universidad Javeriana (Colombia) and Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona (Spain). Over the past decade, she has worked extensively on land use and land cover change, sustainable agricultural systems and agri-food supply chains (including bioeconomy), water resource management, carbon accounting, ecological restoration, and ecosystem services. Her work also critically examines policies, trades agreements, governance and financial frameworks aimed at improving the sustainable use and value of land, forest, and water resources. Caroline's approach combines geoinformatics, remote sensing, and qualitative-multi-method research. In addition to generating science, she focuses on communicating and engaging with diverse stakeholders (farmers, private companies, financial institutions, and government agencies). Her research and applied work have spans Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and more recently, Paraguay.

She has been collaborating on international and trans/interdisciplinary projects in social organizations and academia with professionals from diverse fields and forms of knowledge (academic and traditional). During her PhD, Caroline worked as doctoral research at IRI THESys/Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the project “Water security for whom? – Social and material perspectives on inequality around multipurpose reservoirs in Colombia” funded by Volkswagen Foundation. More recently at the Institute of Forest and Agricultural Management and Certification (Imaflora), Caroline has worked as a scientific-technical consultant within the SERVIR-Amazonia project (a joint initiative by USAID and NASA), supporting activities and partnerships in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador. She has also contributed to the Tropical Forest Finance Fund (TFFF) initiative, in collaboration with the Brazilian Forest Service (SFB), Ministry of the Environment (MMA) and Space Research Institute (INPE). Another renowned Brazilian NGO that Caroline worked as a researcher was the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM). Some projects that she participated were CONSERV (funded by Norwegian and Dutch embassy), NovaBov (funded by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation-NORAD), Sustainable production chains in Pará state (funded by Agence française de développement-AFD) and OCAA (Amazon Observatory on Trade and Environment).

At the Thünen Institute, she is working in the “Land use change and trade effects of the EU regulation for deforestation-free products in Brazil and Paraguay | EUDR-Effects" project that aims to assess effects of the EUDR regulation on soy and cattle production in and between Brazil and Paraguay. Specifically, the project examines the perception and implementation of the deforestation-free requirement by actors along the supply chains in these countries and aims to quantify the reactions of producers, traders, processors and exporters in terms of production and resulting land use change and trade. She will be responsible for the scientific analysis and also the project management in collaboration with partners in Brazil and Paraguay.