Role
PhD researcher on the SCALE project
Research / Engagement
RAVOAVISON Tojotsilavina Naval is a social and policy specialist from Madagascar with over 14 years of experience in development, humanitarian response, and social protection systems, including key roles with UNICEF and the World Food Programme.
His professional experience spans Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Haiti, where he has led, and supported initiatives focused on community resilience, cash transfer programming, and inclusive development policies in both crisis-affected and development contexts. Working directly with vulnerable populations and fragile landscapes has shaped his interest in linking social protection, rural development, and environmental sustainability.
Naval is now pursuing a PhD in Social and Environmental Sciences as part of the SCALE project. His research explores the trade-offs between agricultural expansion and forest conservation in Madagascar, framed through the lenses of Land Sharing and Land Sparing. Adopting an interdisciplinary methodology that combines ecological fieldwork, socio-economic modeling, and ethnographic research, he investigates how land-use strategies affect biodiversity, ecosystem services, and the livelihoods of forest-dependent communities.
Drawing on years of programmatic experience in fragile ecological zones, his doctoral work seeks to generate policy-relevant evidence that bridges local realities with national and global conservation and development agendas.
Other research interests
Socio-ecological dynamics of land use, environmental justice, climate-resilient livelihoods, agricultural intensification vs. expansion trade-offs with sustainable land management.
Degree
Engineering Degree in Agronomy from the University of Antananarivo
Master’s degree in Anthropology and Ecology from the Catholic University of Madagascar.