Maya Leroy (PhD)

Education

• Agricultural engineer from ENSAM, with a specialization in tropical agronomy at CNEARC-ESAT.
• PhD in Environmental Sciences from ENGREF.

Professional experience

• 1988–1991 – Programme officer for the French Ministry of Agriculture and FAO-AGPP: strengthening plant-protection capacities and services in Central Africa, particularly in Congo and Burundi.
• 1991–1994 – Institutional development consultant for FAO, UNDP, Agropolis, INRA-SAD and AScA: evaluation of environmental public policies and project formulation in France, Burundi, Rwanda and Cameroon.
• 1994–2004 – Lecturer and researcher at CNEARC on social water management and local natural-resource management.
• 2004–2007 – Head of the Rural and Tropical Forestry Department at ENGREF Montpellier.

• Head of AgroParisTech’s Environmental Management Unit — G-ENV.
• Co-head of the GEEFT engineering specialization — Environmental Management of Ecosystems and Tropical Forests.
• Academic head of the Specialized Master “Forest, Nature and Society – International Management” (FNS-MI).
• Lecturer and researcher in management sciences applied to environmental management.

Maya Leroy’s research is situated in the field of environmental management sciences, with a particular focus on the analysis of environmental management strategies.

Her work aims in particular to assess the environmental effectiveness of management systems by placing situations in their historical, social, political and geographical context, analysing systems of action and identifying actors capable of carrying environmental concerns.

Main research areas

• Analysing the consequences of globalization strategies for management systems and environmental management arrangements, particularly in developing countries.
• Assessing strategic environmental management approaches implemented in public services, companies and hybrid public-private arrangements, particularly with regard to their ecological performance.
• Analysing and evaluating environmental standardization and certification arrangements designed to regulate economic activities through standards of good environmental and social practice.
• Studying the strategies of environmental NGOs, their alliances, and the organizational and inter-organizational innovations they develop.

Fields of interest

• Analysis of environmental management arrangements at local, national, interstate and international levels.
• Environmental assessment and public policy, particularly in the context of international aid.

Research projects

• ANR GEODD — “Corporate Governance, Organizations and Sustainable Development”.
• ANR PRIGOUE — privatization of global environmental governance and the role of multi-stakeholder sustainability standards in regulating global environmental change.
• ABIOS — Amazonian Biodiversity in Society, followed by REKABIOS — Regime of Knowledge for Amazonian Biodiversity.

Fieldwork

Brazil, Morocco, India, Senegal, Mauritania, Tunisia, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, wetlands and tropical regions.

• Strategic environmental management and organization theory.
• Strategic analysis of environmental management.
• Theories of environmental management.
• Environmental assessment of policies, programmes and projects.
• Negotiation for natural-resource management.

Doctoral supervision — completed PhDs

• Claire Bernard — « La biodiversité par projet. Réflexivité engagée et dispositif stratégique en Albanie », co-supervised with Florence Palpacuer, University of Montpellier, defended in 2016.
• Laura Brimont — « Le coût de la réduction des émissions issues de la déforestation et de la dégradation des forêts (REDD+) à Madagascar », co-supervised with Alain Karsenty, defended in 2014.
• Sandra Nicolle — « Les espaces naturels protégés en forêt amazonienne. Des doctrines de gestion aux dispositifs : quelle efficacité pour la protection de l’environnement ? Étude comparative Guyane / Brésil (Amapá) », co-supervised with Françoise Grenand, defended in 2014.
• Claudia Vitel — research on the implementation and environmental effectiveness of the REDD+ mechanism in the Brazilian Amazon, co-supervised with Philip Fearnside, defended in 2014.
• Fanny Guillet — « Une analyse stratégique pour l’organisation à finalité environnementale », co-supervised with Laurent Mermet, defended in 2011.
• Pierre-Marie Aubert — « Action publique et société rurale dans la gestion des forêts marocaines : changement social et efficacité environnementale », PhD supervisor, defended in 2010.
• Romain Taravella — research on the Amazon frontier and conservation/deforestation dynamics in Terra do Meio, co-supervised with Laurent Mermet, defended in 2008.