Dr. Johanne Pelletier

Biography

Johanne Pelletier received her PhD from McGill University and conducted research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, focusing on emissions from land use change. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, where she played a leading role in a NASA-funded project aimed at improving estimates of carbon emissions and removals due to land cover changes in southern and eastern Africa. A recipient of the NatureNet Fellowship from the Nature Conservancy and Cornell University, she collaborated with agricultural development economists to study the relationship between deforestation and smallholder farmers' agricultural inputs. At Cornell University, she led a project in partnership with the TNC-Cornell Atkinson Sustainability Center to create new soil maps for Zambia and assess land-based climate change mitigation potential and monitor charcoal production using remote sensing. She is currently focused on understanding the impacts of direct and indirect human activities on forested agricultural ecosystems, including land use and land cover changes, with the aim of mitigating climate change and conserving biodiversity while improving environmental governance.

Research Interests

Experience