Carmen Rodríguez

About Carmen Rodríguez, ESR1

Carmen is a restless individual born in the South yet raised in Northern Spain. This, combined with her forestry studies by the Mediterranean coast has shaped Carmen’s interest in understanding how different cultures relate and interact with nature, including with wildfires. In her work, she combines her background in forestry engineering with questions and concerns around the pressing sustainability challenges the world is currently facing. Her work has mostly had a Mediterranean focus. She’s searched for solutions hands-on, through personal involvement in diverse grassroots movements in Europe and Latin America. Now in research, she tries to look at the same issues from a different angle, while bringing together the social and environmental dimensions on equal foot.

Click here to get to know her.

Affiliation

European Forest Institute

Research focus

Building socio-ecological resilience in the face of global change is becoming a pressing need worldwide. Building resilience is intimately linked to the wildfire issue in the Mediterranean region, where wildfires are increasingly becoming a civil protection threat (i.e. Portugal 2017, Spain 2022, Greece 2018 and 2023). In her research, Carmen explores the territorial ramifications of resilience, and highlights that the resilience building process is a highly political endeavour that needs to take into account socio-political aspects on equal foot to environmental and technical ones. In order to do that, she mobilises the concept of social innovation, in order to re-define it, and explore its practical meaning in the Mediterranean context.

More about Carmen´s research here.

Post-PyroLife position

Researcher, European Forest Institute

Skills and abilities

Qualitative research | Content analysis | Public speaking | Critical thinking | Writing | Cooperation

Languages

Spanish (native), English, Catalan (fluent), German (intermediate)

Education

• PhD in Geography, KU Leuven. Thesis title: Unravelling the role of social innovation for socio-ecological resilience in Mediterranean, fire-prone territories.
• MSc Forestry

Contact

carmen.rodriguez@efi.int

Social media

• Twitter: @carmenrodfb
• LinkedIn: Carmen Rodríguez

Research publications

Rodríguez Fernández-Blanco, C., Muys, B., Winkel, G., Parra & C. (2024). Revisiting wildfire resilience from a territorial perspective: insights from Mediterranean Spain. Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 1 – 30.

• See factsheet summarising the research, showing the implications on wildfire management and giving recommendations to policymakers, in English and Catalan.

Rodríguez Fernández-Blanco, C., Górriz-Mifsud, E., Prokofieva, I., Muys, B., & Parra, C. (2022). Blazing the trail: Social innovation supporting wildfire-resilient territories in Catalonia (Spain). Forest policy and economics, 138, 102719 – Factsheetwith recommendations for policymakers and emergency responders available here.