Karine Caussé’s area of expertise lies at the intersection of social sciences and environmental management. In January, she joined WE&B’s team as a socio-environmental systems consultant after having collaborated with us on a project funded by UfM tackling the capitalisation of green circular economy practices in the Mediterranean region.

She previsouly worked for UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (Regional Bureau for Sciences in Montevideo) on socio-cultural dimensions of water management in Latin America and the Caribbean, after completing a six-month internship at UNESCO’s HQ in Paris.

She takes a keen interest in hydro-diplomacy and policy analysis building on local ecological knowledge to help formulate new sustainable solutions to the global water crisis. Prior to gaining professional experience, she graduated with a Master’s Degree in Social Anthropology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales – Paris.

She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in the same field of study and another one in Political Sciences from Lyon II Lumière University, including a year of academic exchange at the University of Ottawa (Ontario, Canada). During her studies, she participated in various social science research projects led by the EHESS and the Centre for Insular Research and Observatory of the Environment (Moorea, French Polynesia) which addressed natural resources management practices ; the impacts of globally defined environmental standards in local contexts ; socio-environmental conflicts in France, Argentina and French Polynesia. She first conducted an ethnographic research in Concordia (Argentina) tracing the Yuqueri River’s flow from the site of a citrus-processing industry to a downstream barrio, with the aim of observing the multiplicity of conflicting practices along this path.

Shortly after, she took part in an interdisciplinary research project in Moorea which investigated the interactions between islanders and coral reefs within marine protected areas. In her spare time, Karine supported the youth-led think-and-do tank CliMates as a volunteer in the preparation of the 2021 CliMates Summit on Desirable Futures and attended the May-June 2021 UN climate change conference as a member of CliMates’ Delegation.