I work as a Professor of Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences where I have been employed since 1998. I was first trained at the University of Oslo where I did a Cand. Scient. in Resource Geography and Landscape Ecology in 1988. I then worked as a Research Assistant for the University of Oslo on a research project in Mali (1989-92) and for the UNDP in Tanzania (1992-94) before I did a PhD in Geography and Development Studies at Roskilde University in 1998. Most of my research is framed within a broad political ecology perspective. I am in particular interested in the material and discursive aspects of environmental change and land-use conflicts. The main themes that I have worked on are ‘desertification’ in the West African Sahel; climate change and violent conflicts; the Jihadist insurgency in the Sahel; environmental conservation areas in Africa and India; small-scale farming and pastoralism in Africa; formalization of land rights; and Sámi reindeer pastoralism and state governance in northern Norway. I am also Associate Editor of Political Geography and a Lead Author of the 6th Assessment Report of the IPCC.