Jaqueline Garcia - Yi

I am a doctoral student at the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn, Germany. My undergrad is on food science from the National Agricultural University of Peru and I have a masters in ecology and environmental science from the University of Maine in US.

My main research interest is on the dynamics of coupled natural and human systems, especially in developing countries' protected areas. I am using remote sensing, institutional analysis, and evolutionary and experimental game theory to try to understand the socio - economic reasons for deforestation in Bahuaja - Sonene National Park in Peru. For running the simulations I expect to be able to construct an agent - based model.

My father is Peruvian and my mother Chinese descendant. For all of you who speak Chinese, please be patient with me. I do not speak Chinese at all, but I am very glad I have the opportunity to visit China for the very first time. I am looking forward to meeting all of you at the summer school!

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1. What topics do you have some expertise in and would you be willing to help others learn them?

I have some experience with environmental and protected areas management, economics and politics in developing countries. This relates with complex problems that emerge from coupled social and natural systems.

2. What do you want to learn at the CSSS?

I would like to learn more about evolutionary approaches to complex problem solving, in particular evolutionary game theory. I am also interested in learning about agent – based models that could be applied to simulate deforestation and other environmental problems.

3. Do you have any projects or research interests that would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach?

I consider that my doctoral thesis, which is related to deforestation in protected areas, has an interdisciplinary approach. I would like to hear comments from evolutionary biologists and social scientists about the methodologies I am planning to use in my thesis.

4. Do you have any ideas for what sort of project you would like to do work on with other CSSS students this summer?

I have some ideas but I am still open to new ones. I would be interested in working on cellular automata and/or agent – based simulations applied to the complex problem of deforestation in developing countries. Evolutionary game theory for human decision - making processes could be also an interesting topic.

5. Suppose you could travel one-hundred years in the future and ask researchers any three questions. What would those questions be?

a) How are you dealing with climate change?

b) Was it possible to reduce the economic and technological gap between developed and developing countries?

c) Are we able now to scientifically understand human decision – making processes? If yes, how are we applying this knowledge to solve complex social problems such as poverty and deforestation?