Research programme
Three streams, one objective
Our research runs along three lines of enquiry to advance sustainable natural resource management, policy and governance internationally.
Environmental monitoring and assessment
Sustainable development is acknowledged to be complex, yet society still has to assess, monitor and report how resource condition is changing and what that means for social and economic values. This research stream works on monitoring and assessing natural resource systems in support of impact mitigation and adaptation strategies that can be put into practice.
Example publications
- Chong, K., Hickey, G.M., Chan, H.M. and Basu, N. (2024). Exploring practices, challenges, and priorities for human health and ecological risk assessments in Indigenous communities in Canada. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management 20(5): 1677–1692.
- Che, T.Q. and Hickey, G.M. (2021). Assessing the potential for collaborative governance to support Cumulative Effects Assessment in the Indigenous Cree Territory of Eeyou Istchee, Canada. Journal of Environmental Management 298(15): 113444.
- Darling, S., Harvey, B. and Hickey, G.M. (2023). From ‘stakeholders’ to rights holders: How research capacity affects Indigenous participation in Impact Assessment. Environmental Impact Assessment Review 99: 107025.
Resilience of resource-dependent communities
The resilience of any socio-ecological system ultimately rests on the social actors, networks and institutions governing natural resource use and stewardship. Research in this stream focuses on local and regional dynamics of collaboration, conflict, disruption and collective action in different resource settings to inform management strategies.
Example publications
- Chamberland-Fontaine, S., Estrada, G.T., Heckadon, S. and Hickey, G.M. (2022). Enhancing the sustainable management of mangrove forests: The case of Punta Galeta, Panama. Trees, Forests and People 8: 100274.
- Hickey, G.M., Pouliot, M., Smith-Hall, C., Wunder, S. and Nielsen, M.R. (2016). Quantifying the economic contribution of wild food harvests to rural livelihoods: A global-comparative analysis. Food Policy 62: 122–132.
- Badry, N. and Hickey, G.M. (2022). Enhancing collaboration across the knowledge system boundaries of ecosystem governance. Advances in Ecological Research 66: 63–88.
Innovation, regulatory science and public policy
Improving how scientific work feeds into policy is harder than it sounds. The recurring difficulty is translation: turning scientific results into something that deliberative social processes can actually use. This stream asks how we approach complex governance challenges, and how we collaborate, co-learn and generate knowledge to innovate across boundaries.
Example publications
- Song, A., Temby, O.F., Kim, D., Saavedra Cisneros, A. and Hickey, G.M. (2019). Measuring, mapping and quantifying the effects of trust and informal communication on transboundary collaboration in the Great Lakes fisheries policy network. Global Environmental Change 54: 6–18.
- Hickey, G.M., Roozee, E., Voogd, R., de Vries, J.R., Sohns, A., Kim, D. and Temby, O. (2023). On the architecture of collaboration in inter-organizational natural resource management networks. Journal of Environmental Management 328: 116994.
- Pigford, A., Hickey, G.M. and Klerkx, L. (2018). Beyond Agricultural Innovation Systems? Exploring an Agricultural Innovation Ecosystems approach for niche design and development in sustainability transitions. Agricultural Systems 164: 116–121.
Working with us
We design projects in partnership with government agencies, NGOs, the private sector, and local and Indigenous communities. If your work overlaps with ours and you want to discuss ideas, please reach out to gordon.hickey@mcgill.ca.