Winy Vasquez is a PhD student in the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia, where she also completed her Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources Conservation in 2018
Winy’s PhD research is grounded on the idea that people and forests are intrinsically linked, and she will be looking at how the right to food intersects with the enactment and management of protected areas in the Amazon. Winy will be working in collaboration with an Indigenous community in Peru that lives near a protected area in order to assess how their food security and nutrition may be impacted by the creation of the protected area. By undertaking this research, Winy hopes to be able to highlight the many contributions forests make to healthy, diverse and sustainable diets as well as contribute to better informed food related policies that strengthen Indigenous food systems, rights and access.
