Belcher, Brian
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Brian Belcher’s research has focused on understanding and improving the role and potential of natural resources to sustainably contribute to rural development and on research effectiveness. Belcher served as director of the Centre for Livelihoods and Ecology at RRU from 2007 to 2013, when he became the university's first Tier 1 Canada Research Chair. As a CRC, he is leading a program in sustainability research effectiveness that aims to develop theory and methodology for evaluating sustainability research in complex transdisciplinary contexts and to conduct comparative analyses and evaluations of a series of sustainability research projects. Belcher teaches in the Doctor of Social Sciences program and supervises master's and doctoral students. He is also a senior associate scientist with the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and the Consortium Research Program of Forests, Trees and Agroforestry, where he is a member of the monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment team. He is a founding member of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Evaluation Community of Practice. Belcher is an avid cyclist and president of the Greater Victoria Velodrome Association.
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 Canada License.
Recent Submissions
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Linking transdisciplinary research characteristics and quality to effectiveness: A comparative analysis of five research-for-development projects
(Environmental Science & Policy, 2019)More and more effective research is needed to help address complex sustainability problems. Many research approaches have adopted more transdisciplinary characteristics as a way to improve effectiveness. However, empirical ... -
A response to “Assessing the impact of transdisciplinary research: The usefulness of relevance, credibility, and legitimacy for understanding the link between process and impact
(Research Evaluation, 2018)Hansson and Polk (2018, Research Evaluation, 27/2: 132–44) aim to assess the usefulness of the concepts of relevance, credibility, and legitimacy for understanding the link between process and impact in transdisciplinary ... -
Crossing the science-policy interface: Lessons from a research project on Brazil nut management in Peru
(Forest Policy and Economics, 2018)There are high expectations for contemporary forestry research, and sustainability research more broadly, to have impact in the form of improved institutions, policy and practice and improved social and environmental ... -
Evaluating policy-relevant research: Lessons from a series of theory-based outcomes assessments
(Palgrave Communications, 2017)The increasing external demand from research funders and research managers to assess, evaluate and demonstrate the quality and the effectiveness of research is well known. Less discussed, but equally important, is the ... -
“Research that makes a difference”: Conceptualizing and assessing the Royal Roads University research model
(Royal Roads University, 2016-06-01)New approaches to research engage with and deliberately contribute to transformations in complex social and natural systems. Such research is problem driven, transcends disciplinary boundaries, and it is often grounded in ... -
Defining and assessing research quality in a transdisciplinary context
(Research Evaluation, 2016)Research increasingly seeks both to generate knowledge and to contribute to real-world solutions, with strong emphasis on context and social engagement. As boundaries between disciplines are crossed, and as research engages ... -
Forest-based livelihoods strategies conditioned by market remoteness and forest proximity in Jharkhand, India
(World Development, 2015)The study uses a novel method to investigate the role of forest proximity, market remoteness, and caste in determining household income, especially forest income, in an underdeveloped region of India. A high (>50%) ... -
Environmental income and rural livelihoods: A global-comparative analysis
(World Development, 2014)This paper presents results from a comparative analysis of environmental income from approximately 8000 households in 24 developing countries collected by research partners in CIFOR’s Poverty Environment Network (PEN). ... -
Forests, livelihoods, and conservation: Broadening the empirical base
(World Development, 2014)More than 10,000 years after the Agricultural Revolution started, millions of rural smallholders across the developing world may still derive as much income from foraging forests and wildlands as from cultivating crops. ... -
Development of a village-level livelihood monitoring tool: A case-study in Viengkham District, Lao PDR
(International Forestry Review, 2012)Effective monitoring is a fundamental requirement for adaptive management. The need for better tools for monitoring livelihoods is particularly acute. A simple indicators-based livelihoods monitoring tool to be used at ... -
Balancing Development and Conservation? An Assessment of Livelihood and Environmental Outcomes of Nontimber Forest Product Trade in Asia, Africa, and Latin America
(Resilience Alliance, 2006)This article addresses the question, to what extent and under which conditions nontimber forest product (NTFP) trade leads to both livelihood improvement and forest conservation. We based the analysis on a standardized ... -
Forest product markets, forests and poverty reduction
(Commonwealth Forestry Association, 2005)There is a new and increasing emphasis on poverty alleviation and livelihoods improvement in forestry, representing both a challenge and an opportunity. This paper briefly reviews the evolution of the ‘livelihoods’ issue, ... -
Looking through the bamboo curtain: an analysis of the changing role of forest and farm income in rural livelihoods in China
(Commonwealth Forestry Association, 2004)Forestry and poverty analyses in China show an ambiguous relationship. While the co-occurrence of forest rich areas and poor counties has been noted by some authors, others have stressed the role played by forestry in ... -
The relationship between forest research and forest management in China: an analysis of four leading Chinese forestry journals
(Commonwealth Forestry Association, 2004)We analyse the collaboration between forestry research institutions and forestry departments in China based on a bibliometric study of four leading Chinese forestry journals. Multiple-authored papers are frequent, and ... -
Markets Drive the Specialization Strategies of Forest Peoples
(Resilience Alliance, 2004)Engagement in the market changes the opportunities and strategies of forest-related peoples. Efforts to support rural development need to better understand the potential importance of markets and way people respond to them. ...
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