Dr Elaine Lan Yin Hsiao

Elaine (Lan Yin) Hsiao is a Global Challenges Fellow at the Sheffield Institute for International Development (SIID) and Research Affiliate with the University of Rwanda’s Center of Excellence on Biodiversity and Natural Resources.

Her research is primarily socio-legal, integrating peace and conflict studies with transboundary conservation and protected areas, indigenous and community conservation, human rights and rights of nature, and environmental governance and sovereignty. Much of her work seeks to address conflicts in conservation (eg human-protected area conflicts, human-wildlife conflicts), conservation in places of conflict (ie conflict-sensitive and conflict-resilient conservation), and conflict resolution through conservation (ecological peacebuilding).

Lan Yin’s current research explores the disruption and revitalisation of ICCAs (areas and territories conserved by Indigenous Peoples and local communities) in Rwanda. The focus is particularly in terms of strengthening socio-ecological connectivity, resilience and peace in the broader transboundary landscapes of the Albertine Rift.

Lan Yin also Co-chairs the IUCN CEESP Theme on Environment and Peace and its Task Force on Environmental Change, Migration and Conflict, and is an Honorary Member of the ICCA Consortium.