Izabela Delabre

Izabela Delabre is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Social Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London, currently on maternity leave until September 2025. She holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Reading (2017), an MSc in Environmental Management (2013), a BSc in Environmental Sciences (2008), and a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (2024). Her research focuses on the intersection of forest governance, sustainable agriculture, and global-local sustainability transformations. She leads the MSc Global Environment and Sustainability program and teaches Future Food Systems and Sustainability.

Key research areas include political ecology of tropical forests, anticipatory governance, and critical analysis of private environmental standards. She co-convenes the multidisciplinary working group on 'Plantations: Political ecologies of extraction and resistance' supported by Birkbeck Institute for Social Research. Her recent grants include funding from DEFRA for Nature-Based Solutions and The David and Lucile Packard Foundation for conservation finance initiatives.

• Scientific Awards: Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE)
• Teaching Roles: Programme Director for MSc Global Environment and Sustainability
• Grants:
  • Nature-Based Solutions for Climate Change at the Landscape Scale (DEFRA-funded)
  • No Trees, No Future: Unlocking Conservation Finance Potential (Packard Foundation)

Delabre’s work bridges academia and practice, with prior roles as Research Fellow at the University of Sussex and the Zoological Society of London’s Business and Biodiversity Conservation Programme. Her research emphasizes equitable sustainability governance and the socio-political dimensions of environmental certification systems.