Natalia Ocampo Diaz, MS-A

Natalia Ocampo Diaz

Contact Me

CSUS - Community-based management, decision-making, common and collective property
Department of Community Sustainability

Hometown: Bogotá D.C. / Colombia

Advisor: Maria Lopez

My emerging career, as well as my life, is profoundly rooted in the context where I come from. I grew up in Colombia, a country submerged in diverse complexities, such as a (hopefully almost-ending) armed conflict, geographic variability, biodiversity and ethnic richness, among others. During my bachelor in Ecology, I became interested in the way in which society and ecosystems transform each other permanently; but also, I realized that I had a huge responsibility as an Ecologist born in a country inhabited by such a diversity of living beings.

In order to contribute to this, I came to MSU willing to explore the way in which communities manage collective territories, because of the multiple complexities that the concepts of collective property and community-based management hold within.

So far, the research experience I have accounted has been accomplished in different Colombian settings (Amazon, Pacific Region, Catatumbo, Orinoquia, Andean Region) allowing me to compare and contrast, but mainly, it has been a vivid space for understanding the importance of the context for interpretation.