With support from the Swiss Re Foundation, and with collaborators from the University of Southampton, and CATIE, the UB-ERI is implementing the project “Climate Crossroads: Futures for People & Nature in Central Belize.” As part of the project we are recruiting a Postdoctoral Researcher in Ecosystem Services Modelling to join the project team.
For more details of the position see the job description (downloadable from the link below), and/or email Dr Ivis Chan (ivis.chan@ub.edu.bz)
The project will present a case study to assess the local impacts of changes in Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (BES) within the Maya Forest Corridor (MFC) Landscape in Central Belize, Central America. The MFC Landscape is a mixture of tropical broadleaf forest, riverine forest, and lowland savanna habitat (~92,000 acres). Interspersed in the MFC landscape are roughly 21 villages and a patchwork of privately owned lands, agricultural farms and cattle ranches. The communities within this landscape benefit from the many ecosystem services including: clean water, timber and non-timber forest products, food, flood control, & recreation.
The project will explore how changes in BES will impact the needs of the surrounding communities and business interests by modelling changes in a suite of ecosystem services. Specifically this project will 1) Model changes in a suite of BES across the MFC Landscape under climate change scenarios 2) assess socio-economic impact for communities' quality of life and local businesses and 3) produce a framework to assess impacts of BES changes on local economies to inform policy development.