Christian Castellanet

Christian Castellanet is an agronomist and ecologist (PhD Institute of Ecology – UGA- USA).

He has been involved with Gret (an INGO based in France) in international cooperation in the field of action research for rural development and natural resource management in West Africa, the Caribbean, Brazilian Amazon and Southeast Asia, where he has accompanied various projects related to NRM in Cambodia and Vietnam. He has been Visiting Professor in the Federal University of Para (Brasil) and Université de Versailles/ C3ED (Paris), and scientific director in Gret. He has coordinated various research projects, including one on “concerted management of natural resources and land” in West Africa (NEGOS-GRN, 2009-2012). He has published several books on the integration of environment and development (“Conservation de la nature et développement. L’intégration impossible ? » Karthala, 2003, « La gestion concertée des ressources naturelles : l’épreuve du temps « (Karthala 2008) and « Participatory Action Research and Natural Resource Management. A critique of the method based on five years’ experience in the Transmazônica region of Brazil. Taylor and Francis, New York, 2002 », as well as numerous papers both in academic reviews (Tiers Monde, Agronomie Tropicale) and in professional series. He has been presently Deputy Team Leader of the Mekong Region Land Governance Project, based in Vientiane (Lao PDR) funded by SDC and BMZ www.mrlg.org. with the aim to secure the access of family farmers to land and natural resources, in four countries (Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam) from 2014 to 2018.

He is now back in France since July 2018, at part time with Gret, and part time with AGTER.