Science, Environment and Development Group

Mr. Erik Nielsen
Center for International Development
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
506 Rubenstein Building
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
USA
Tel: (1) 617-496-0426
Fax: (1) 617-496-8753
Email: nielsen1 "at" mit.edu
Group affiliation: Doctoral Research Fellow

Erik Nielsen is a Doctoral Research Fellow at Harvard’s Center for International Development and a doctoral candidate at the Department of Urban Studies and Planning’s Environmental Policy Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His field is environmental public policy with an emphasis on East and Southeast Asia. His research analyzes the role of non-governmental interests in the process of environmental policy formulation and implementation. He focuses on transboundary environmental governance in the Greater Mekong Sub-Region, with an emphasis on how local and transnational civil society actors can influence China's decision-making over transboundary natural resources management. Nielsen worked at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome from 1998-2003 where he was coordinator of the Community Forestry Unit's global conflict management programme and team leader of an FAO programme on natural resource conflict management for Ghana. He is a recipient of Canada's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship and a member of the Martin Family Society of Fellows for Sustainability. He has a master's degree from Cornell University in International Development Communication, with a double minor in Adult Education and Latin American Studies, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Guelph in Natural Resources Management and International Development. He is a national of Canada.