Christian Abizaid

I am a human-environmental geographer with a general interest in indigenous and peasant livelihoods in Neotropical forests. My research centers on the ways in which rural households make a living from traditional agriculture and natural resource use practices, their impact on the environment, poverty, vulnerability, and potential for adaptation to environmental change in tropical regions of Latin America, especially the Peruvian Amazon. I use a mixed-methods approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods to address relevant questions around rural livelihoods at local and regional scales. Specifically, my research combines ethnographic methods with community and household surveys, and social network analysis to examine how geographical, microeconomic, relational, and structural factors shape rural settlement, resource use, and vulnerability in Neotropical forests. I am one of three leaders of the Peruvian Amazon Rural Livelihoods and Poverty (PARLAP) Project, which is a large-scale study on rural poverty in the Peruvian Amazon.

I am looking for students interested in joining my research program on rural livelihoods, poverty and environment in the Peruvian Amazon. Possible themes include: river dynamics and livelihoods; greater access to affordable motors and cell phones and their implications for labor, marketing, finance and livelihoods more broadly; covid-19 among rural populations; social networks (e.g., religion, sports, kinship; rural-urban linkages), livelihood vulnerability and resilience; small Amazonian towns and their role in the regional economy; floodplain agriculture and/or fisheries.

Publications

Abizaid, C., O. T. Coomes, Y. Takasaki. 2022. Lifeways and currents of change in the Peruvian Amazon: A 1000 km boat journey down the Ucayali River. Focus on Geography. 65:1.

Langill, J.C., C. Abizaid, Y. Takasaki, and O.T. Coomes. 2022. Integrated multi-scalar analysis of vulnerability to environmental hazards: assessing extreme flooding in western Amazonia. Global Environmental Change 76: 102585.

Takasaki, Y., C. Abizaid, and O.T. Coomes. 2022, COVID-19 contagion across remote communities in tropical forests. Scientific Reports  12, 20727.

Coomes, O. T., Takasaki, and C. Abizaid. 2022. Sparing of Amazonian old-growth forests with floodplain access. Nature Sustainability 5(11): 965–972.

Abizaid, C., L.A. Collado Panduro, and S. Gonzales Egusquiza 2020. Pobreza y medios de subsistencia en la Amazonía Peruana en tiempos de la COVID-19. Journal of Latin American Geography 19 (3): 202-215.

Langill, J. and C. Abizaid. 2020. What is a bad flood? Local perspectives of extreme floods in the Peruvian Amazon. Ambio 49:1423–143.

Abizaid, C., O.T. Coomes, Y. Takasaki and J. P. Arroyo-Mora. 2018. Rural social networks along Amazonian rivers: seeds, labor and soccer among rural communities on the Napo River, Peru, The Geographical Review 108(1): 92-119. (2018 Best Paper Award)