PhD: Co-production of land use futures Brazil

PhD:
Co-production of land use futures for Brazil

Faculty:
Faculty of Geosciences Department:
Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning Hours per week: 36 to 40 Final date to receive applications: 13 October 2026

Do you care about impacts of land use on the livelihoods of various groups of people in ecologically sensitive regions of the world? Do you want to explore what kind of land use futures the people aspire? And are you eager to bring these perspectives together to co-produce promising pathways towards sustainable land use futures? Then this PhD position at the Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning of Utrecht University may be for you!

The MATOPIBA region in the Brazilian Cerrado is of major national and global importance: it is one of South America’s most agriculturally productive landscapes, a biodiversity hotspot, and home to Indigenous people, Quilombola, smallholder farmers, and large agribusinesses among others. Therefore, future land use strategies in MATOPIBA require balancing agricultural production with biodiversity conservation and social justice, while also accounting for the effects of climate change.

In this position, you will contribute to co-producing such land use strategies by interacting with the different stakeholder groups, including policy makers, to understand how agricultural production and biodiversity impact various people’s livelihoods. Methodologically, you will use qualitative methods such as field observations, focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and participatory/ co-creation of maps.

More specifically, you will:

• Travel to Brazil to conduct field research through which you interact with various actor groups and stakeholders such as policy makers and private sectors in land use in MATOPIBA;
• Discover their preferences in terms of ‘productive agriculture’ and ‘healthy biodiversity’ through focus groups and semi-structured interviews;
• Facilitate exercises of participatory mapping to co-create maps to identify desired land use futures for various groups;
• Further discuss and document the potential of alternative land use futures with the stakeholders in public, private, and civil society sectors; and
• Write academic articles and policy documents that summarize the above to generate and disseminate knowledge on the possible pathways to sustainable land use futures in MATOPIBA.

This PhD position is part of the project “Frontiers of MATOPIBA landscapes”, which examines how agricultural production and biodiversity conservation can be balanced in Brazil’s MATOPIBA region under future climate and socio-economic conditions. It has the aim to support evidence-based decisions to form sustainable, just, climate-resilient land use strategies that protect biodiversity, food security, and local livelihoods.

The project isfully funded through the Dutch Research Agenda and the Brazilian research council CNPq . Within the project, you will closely collaborate with another PhD candidate at Utrecht University on spatial optimization of land use, as well as with several consortium members in Brazil, and the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

We are looking for candidates with:

• An MSc degree in (or nearing completion of) an MSc program in Human Geography, International Development Studies, Critical Agrarian Studies, or a related Social Science discipline;
• An interest in the impacts of land use on the environment and the livelihoods of people;
• Experience in qualitative field research and working with diverse groups of people and stakeholders;
• Proficiency in Portuguese;
• Proficiency in English; and
• The ability to work as part of an interdisciplinary research team.

The following qualifications are desirable…