M. BULGHERONI Maura

Maura Bulgheroni is doing an interdisciplinary thesis in ethnoecology under the co-direction of Prof. Véronique Daou Joiris and Prof. Edwin Zaccai. Her focus is the study of climate change and the adaptation of local populations trough a case study: the Gaddi of the Indian Himalayas.

My thesis is a multidisciplinary doctoral research on environmental anthropology. It studies the signification of adaptation in a context of multifactorial and multidimensional processes in rural economies in mountainous areas. The field research, which occupies a prominent place in the overall of the researches, will be developed through the case study of the Himalayan agro-pastoral semi-nomadic Gaddis of Bharmour (Himachal Pradesh, North India).

The research focuses on two axes: (1) the first addresses the issues of climate change from an ethnoecological point of view, and it investigate the role of the climatic phenomenon in the general transformation of Gaddis’ social-ecological system. (2) The second focus on local institutions and organisations together with their interaction with Gaddis’ social-ecological reality.

The research aims to (a) advice, principally by the means of a reflexion on potential limits to the adaptation of Gaddis’ shepherds, on measures that have to be undertaken to be closer to Gaddis’ reality, (b) set a precedent for future interventions on adaptation to climate, and stimulate the policy makers’ approach providing them a tool for reflection.

Doctorant