Célina Marie Scülfort

In my PhD research I investigate land disputes around forests in four indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon. This includes old-growth but pays particular attention to secondary forest areas due to increasing importance of these type of forests in the landscape.  The research inquiries the role of the law in establishing which actors have what land rights. It aims to untangle how the law is deployed in supporting or denying such rights.

It is part of the bigger research project 'Secondary forests, commodity frontiers and the micro-politics of land claims: Struggling to build smallholder forest futures' funded by Vetenskapsrådet. 

You can read more about the project here: https://www.slu.se/en/departments/urban-rural-development/research/rural-development/ongoing-projects/commodity-frontiers/

My supervisor team includes Dr. Kristina Marquardt, Prof. Dr. Adam Pain, Dr. Örjan Bartholdson and Dr. Valeria Biffi Isla. 

In the bigger research project, we collaborate with the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima and the Peruvian NGO Waman Wasi. 

Before starting my PhD position, I worked as a research assistant in the research project 'What is secondary about secondary forest? Building smallholder forest futures in Peru’s Amazonian frontier' in which I was conducting field work for 7 months in the study region of San Martín in the Peruvian Amazon. I have a master degree in Sustainable Development from Uppsala University.