Their analysis and recommendations can frequently work at cross-purposes. In this presentation, she will describe an effort to integrate research methodologies to examine both social and biophysical processes affecting forest conditions.

She will briefly describe the methodology developed by the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) Research Program. Then, she will present findings from Nepal and Ecuador regarding factors affecting processes of institutional change to protect local forest conditions.

About Ellinor Ostrom
Elinor Ostrom is the Arthur F. Bentley Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, and the Center for the Study of Institutions, Population, and Environmental Change, Indiana University, Bloomington.

She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2001; is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and a recipient of the Frank E. Seidman Prize in Political Economy and the Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. Her books include Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action; Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources (with Roy Gardner and James Walker); and Local Commons and Global Interdependence: Heterogeneity and Cooperation in Two Domains (with Robert Keohane).