Dr Angelina Sanderson Bellamy
Research Fellow (PLACE)
School of Geography and Planning
- Email:
- bellamya1@cardiff.ac.uk
- Telephone:
- +44 (0)29 2087 5045
- Location:
- 1.04, 33 Park Place, Cathays, Cardiff, CF10 3BA
- Media commentator
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Dr Angelina Sanderson Bellamy is an ecologist and a research fellow at the Sustainable Places Research Institute, working on themes of sustainable food systems, land use changes, ecological resilience and ecosystem services. She uses a social-ecological framework and interdisciplinary methods (interviews, focus groups, observations and ecological sampling) to understand how people drive and respond to ecosystem changes.
Angelina initiated her first fieldwork project in Costa Rica in 1998, and since then she has been committed to research at the intersection of society and the environment. Over the past 20 years, this research has ranged from conducting interviews with more than 600 farmers and other agricultural workers and sampling avian, insect, water and soil specimens to coding and analysing data using spatial, quantitative and qualitative methods. During this time, Angelina developed an extensive network of contacts in Costa Rica and a deep and nuanced understanding of its culture, which enables her to conduct place-based research with a rich set of data addressing both socio-economic, biodiversity and spatial variables in the communities in which she works. She now has research projects in Wales, England, Costa Rica, Mexico, Colombia and Brazil.
Angelina also serves on the editorial boards for Ambio and Frontiers in Environmental Science Journals.
Previous academic positions
Angelina received her undergraduate degree in Human Biology (Hons) with a focus on Sustainable Development and the Environment from Stanford University, USA. She then worked at the International Geosphere Biosphere Program in Stockholm, Sweden before she began her PhD at Stockholm University in Systems Ecology. Her PhD thesis focused on management practices in coffee and banana production systems in Costa Rica, with an aim to identify production systems that reduce the environmental impact of export crop production. After completing her PhD, Angelina was awarded a 3 year fellowship from the Swedish Research Council to work jointly with Stanford's Wood's Institute for the Environment and the Stockholm Resilience Centre on land use change and the forest transition in Costa Rica.
Angelina received her undergraduate degree in Human Biology (Hons) with a focus on Sustainable Development and the Environment from Stanford University, USA. She then worked at the International Geosphere Biosphere Program in Stockholm, Sweden before she began her PhD at Stockholm University in Systems Ecology. Her PhD thesis focused on management practices in coffee and banana production systems in Costa Rica, with an aim to identify production systems that reduce the environmental impact of export crop production. After completing her PhD, Angelina was awarded a 3 year fellowship from the Swedish Research Council to work jointly with Stanford's Wood's Institute for the Environment and the Stockholm Resilience Centre on land use change and the forest transition in Costa Rica.
2019
- Sanderson Bellamy, A., Carillo, G. and Nelson, T. 2019. Stanford University InTeGrate Implementation Program: Creating opportunities to teach and engage with undergraduates and faculty at two-year colleges and minority serving institutions.. In: Gosselin, D., Egger, A. and John Taber, J. eds. Interdisciplinary Teaching about Earth and the Environment for a Sustainable Future.. AESS Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies and Sciences Series Springer International Publishing, pp. 329 - 359.
2018
- Dunkley, R.et al. 2018. Enabling the IPBES conceptual framework to work across knowledge boundaries. International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics 18(6), pp. 779-799. (10.1007/s10784-018-9415-z)
- Sanderson Bellamy, A. and Galliford, H. J. 2018. Biodiversity and the area-based approach in Wales: how can the sustainable management of natural resources (SMNR) framework deliver nature recovery? Summary and key findings. Project Report. Cardiff University and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
- Svensoon, O.et al. 2018. Assessing the ecological impact of banana farms on water quality using aquatic macroinvertebrate community composition. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 25(14), pp. 13373-13381. (10.1007/s11356-016-8248-y)
- Sanderson Bellamy, A.et al. 2018. Insect community composition and functional roles along a tropical agricultural production gradient. Environmental Science and Pollution Research (10.1007/s11356-018-1818-4)
2017
- Sanderson Bellamy, A. and Ioris, A. A. R. 2017. Addressing the knowledge gaps in agroecology and identifying guiding principles for transforming conventional agri-food systems. Sustainability 9(3), article number: 330. (10.3390/su9030330)
2016
- Sanderson Bellamy, A.et al. 2016. What is in a label? Rainforest-Alliance certified banana production versus non-certified conventional banana production. Global Ecology and Conservation 7, pp. 39-48. (10.1016/j.gecco.2016.05.002)
2013
- Sanderson Bellamy, A. 2013. Banana production systems: Identification of Alternative Systems for more sustainable production. AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment 42(3), pp. 334-343. (10.1007/s13280-012-0341-y)
2011
- Sanderson Bellamy, A. 2011. Weed control practices on Costa Rican coffee farms: is herbicide use necessary for small-scale producers?. Agriculture and Human Values 28(2), pp. 167-177. (10.1007/s10460-010-9261-2)
Angelina delivers lectures and co-manages the course on Food Governance under the Master's programme in Food, Space and Society.
Angelina's research agenda explores the sustainability of land use decisions and how these decisions influence ecosystem services, particularly food provision. Her current and planned research follows four lines of investigation:
- Land2Coast project funded by the British Academy (Mexico): Ecosystem services and governance linkages between terrestrial and coastal ecosystems and the impact of environmental changes on food security. Coastal and marine fisheries are often considered separately from terrestrial food production systems, yet both are important components of food security and can have significant, sometimes unforeseen impacts on each other. Similarly, land use management is disconnected from marine conservation. Research will identify vulnerabilities in the broader socio-ecological system and anticipate how different pressures-- such as overfishing, intensification, land use changes and market prices-- may impact these coupled food production systems.
- CERTAIN: Partnership with Rainforest Alliance to evaluate the environmental and social impact of certification criteria; funded by the ESRC IAA, British Academy and Cardiff University's Seedcorn fund for international collaboration (Costa Rica, Colombia and Brazil). This project stems from previous research on environmental impact of Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification in banana production and aims to further investigate certification practices to identify the essential strategies for influencing meaningful progress in environmental sustainability through certification schemes. By working together with certification agencies, research in this filed can be directly applied to make a positive impact on agricultural sustainability.
- The Sustainable Management of Natural Resource (SMNR) framework: establishing the framework and principles to ensure the effective delivery of biodiversity commitments and the sustainable management of natural resources; funded by the RSPB (Wales). The project looks at legislative and ecological basis for incorporating the conservation of biodiversity into management of natural resources in Wales and how biodiversity can be incorporated in a stakeholder led consultation on the development of Area Statements.
- Giving a women a voice: Pathways to alternative futures, A case study of Mayan communities and sustainable development; funded by ESRC IAA (Mexico). This project looks at how to amplify the voice and economic activity of Mayan women in ejido communities in Quintana Roo, Mexico.
- Biocultural Diversity within farming communities in Veracruz, Mexico; funded by Cardiff GCRF funding. This project works with farming communities to co-develop a research agenda to support communities in advocating against regional mining concessions.
- Trade-offs between human well-being and ecological integrity in the face of land use/cover changes in Southern Costa Rica; funded by the Swedish Research Council (FORMAS) and Cardiff University CUROP (Costa Rica). This project has several objectives: (1) to elicit proximate drivers at the household scale for why producers decide to maintain forest or to clear it and bring it into production; (2) to analyse formal and informal institutions that can provide leverage points for enabling sustainable land use practices; (3) to develop and couple land use change models to biodiversity and ecosystem service models; (4) to develop scenarios of land use change; (5) to develop policy recommendations that may successfully influence land use changes to achieve a balance of human well-being and ecological integrity.
I am interested in supervising students whose research interests overlap with my own principle themes of research: sustainable food systems, land use change, ecosystem services and ecological resilience.
Current supervision
