Sonja Vermeulen

Dr Sonja Vermeulen is Head of Research for the CCAFS Program.

She holds an MA in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Tropical Resource Ecology from the University of Zimbabwe and a PhD in Population Biology from Imperial College London.  

Her professional work has taken her from ecology towards a stronger focus on the social and political aspects of natural resource management. Her early career was as a Research Fellow at the University of Zimbabwe, working on farming and forestry in savanna ecosystems.

Later she worked at the World Wide Fund for Nature, where she was Research Manager for the Zambezi Valley Project.  After her PhD, for which she was awarded a Beit Fellowship, she worked briefly for the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Overseas Development Institute (ODI).

From 2000, Sonja served for nearly ten years at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), first as a Research Associate in the Forest and Land Use program and then as Director of the Business and Sustainable Development program.

Her work at IIED involved program management, research and policy advocacy on a range of issues that included: company-community partnerships in forestry and agriculture; approaches for better policy influence by marginal social groups; the socio-economics of biofuel production; and the land implications of growing agricultural demand.  

She has particular interests in the role of the private sector in development and the institutional dynamics that link consumption and production. She joined CCAFS in February 2010.