Elsa Ligaya Dingkuhn is a PhD candidate at the Farming System Ecology Group (FSE).
Her fields of interest include agri-environmental governance, sustainability transitions in agro-food systems, functional land management, and transdisciplinary approaches in research.
She is passionate about the challenges of enabling the transition, stakeholders engagement, and how to put knowledge into action. She integrates biophysical and social sciences approaches to assess stakeholders interests and influence, to define optimal land use scenarios and the pathways through which these can materialize.
Her current research, a collaboration between FSE, Teagasc (Ireland) and PennState University (USA), focuses on determining tailored transition pathways for sustainable land management in contrasting institutional settings (Ireland, the Philippines and Pennsylvania). Her research considers both the variable capacity of the land to deliver food and other ecosystem services, and the diverging stakeholder demands on the land. She also investigates the scope for such pathways to be supported in an augmented reality module.
Before engaging in research, Elsa has been active in development projects. She has experience in agricultural extension and education (in France), and co-founded Ecotone Resilience in 2015, an NGO focusing on developing sustainable livelihood and conservation projects in the Philippines.
She graduated Cum Laude from the (double degree) MSc Organic Agriculture (WUR) and Agroecology (ISARA). She holds a BS in sustainable agricultural development (LP-ABCD and BTS Acse, France) and a diploma in Farm System Management.