Elin Enfors is a researcher at Stockholm Resilience Center, co-leading the "Agriculture, Ecosystems Services and Social-Ecological landscapes" theme. She also serves as an advisor to the Water, Land and Ecosystems program of the CGIAR, through a working group on ecosystem services and resilience. Her main research interest concerns the dynamics of small-scale agro-ecosystems around the world, with a special focus on pathways to social-ecological transformation in these systems.Elin did her PhD in Natural Resources Management at the Department of Systems Ecology, Stockholm University, and defended her thesis 'Traps and Transformations: exploring the potential of water system innovations in dryland sub-Saharan Africa' in 2009. The thesis builds on an interdisciplinary, in-depth, case study of the Makanya catchment in North-Eastern Tanzania, and focuses on the potential of small-scale water system innovations (SWSIs), such as rainwater harvesting and conservation tillage, for increasing on-farm productivity while at the same time supporting multi-functional landscapes. Inspired by resilience thinking, it takes an integrative approach to advance the understanding of SWSIs in relation to dynamics and complexity in smallholder agro-ecosystems in dryland SSA.
Elin recently completed a postdoc with CIRAD in Montpellier, France, where she worked on a project entitled "Sahel in transition: can the re-greening help smallholders escape persistent poverty?" investigating the links between ecosystem services generation and household welfare dynamics in smallholder systems in Burkina Faso. She has a keen interest in participatory research approaches and extensive experience of field research from various places in sub-Saharan Africa
