Maria Osbeck is a Research Fellow. She joined SEI in 2007 from The World Conservation Union (IUCN).

Maria holds an MSc in rural development from the Swedish University of Agriculture and a BA in Asian studies and political science from Lund University. She has more than ten years of professional experience in development and environment work with 8 years based in Africa and Asia.

Maria specialises in a broad range of social theories and applications. She has vast experience of multidisciplinary projects focusing on river basin management, coastal resource management and land use planning and changes. Maria is a trained facilitator and has extensive experience in participatory community research and planning.

Maria’s research work covers many areas of development with a particular focus on governance, stakeholder engagement, learning, sustainability assessment, project evaluation and policy integration in water-, forests- and coastal systems. Before joining SEI, Maria worked with IUCN’s Asia Water and Wetlands Programme as a Senior Programme Officer where she managed projects on Environmental Flows in the Mekong Region, Health and Environment in Lao PDR and Cambodia, Community based forest management, illegal logging and forest plantations in Indonesia, PNG and Malaysia.

At SEI she has developed and secured funding for a program on land use changes, agriculture and climate change in the Mekong Region. She is leading a component under the Baltic COMPASS project on transboundary water management and eutrophication in the Baltic Sea Region.

Publications

• The Common Agricultural Policy Post-2013: Could Reforms Make Baltic Sea Region Farms More Sustainable? (Policy brief - 2013)

• Dialogue on ecosystem services, payments and outcome based approaches (Paper - 2013)

• A framework for facilitating dialogue between policy planners and local climate change adaptation professionals: Cases from Sweden, Canada and Indonesia (Journal article - 2012)

• How the EU Can Revise its Biofuel Policies to Promote 'Sustainable' Palm Oil Cultivation in Southeast Asia (Policy brief - 2012)

• Long-term CAP Reform Options in an Ecosystems Perspective (Pre-publication) (Research report - 2012)

• Competing Water Claims in Biofuel Feedstock Operations in Central Kalimantan (Working paper - 2012)

• The Common Agricultural Policy post-2013: a Pathway to Regional Cohesion? (Project report - 2012)

• E-Flows in the Nam Songkhram River Basin (Research report - 2011)

• From Case Studies to Climate Adaptation Policy: a Framework for Dialogue Between Local Professionals and Decision Makers (Policy brief - 2011)

• A Framework for Dialogue Between Local Climate Adaptation Professionals and Policy Makers (Research report - 2011)

Complete list of publications »

Projects

• Analyzing the role of rural institutions in enabling adaptation to climate change in the agriculture sector

  
  

• Agricultural transformations in the Greater Mekong Region

  
  

• Social and environmental costs and opportunities associated with renewable energy policy implementation: Negotiation of equitable water allocation and its implications for sustainable livelihoods

  
  

• Baltic Compass

  
  

• Mangrove ecosystems, communities and conflict: developing knowledge-based approaches to reconciling multiple demands (MANGROVE)