Marine Gauthier
Marine Gauthier
Political Scientist · PhD Candidate

Marine Gauthier

Political Science & International Relations — Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID)

I am a political scientist and PhD candidate at the Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID). My doctoral research looks at the social and environmental standards used in global governance: how international organizations write them, how they apply them, and what happens to participation and Indigenous peoples' rights along the way. I came to this work from practice. I spent more than fifteen years on climate and forest policy, including as Senior Technical Advisor on safeguards at UNDP, and I founded CAP!, which supports advocacy by civil-society organizations. I have carried out fieldwork in more than 25 countries.

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Research interests

International Political Sociology Political sociology of international organizations Global environmental & climate governance Indigenous peoples' rights & FPIC Social & environmental safeguards Critical, postcolonial & decolonial approaches Civil society & advocacy Qualitative & ethnographic methods

My doctoral thesis, Social and Environmental Standards in Global Governance (supervised by Prof. Annabelle Littoz-Monnet and Dr Julie Billaud), asks how international organizations create and apply the standards meant to protect people and the environment. I am especially interested in the politics of knowledge they rest on: which forms of expertise count, how knowledge is produced and validated, and how these rules shape participation and rights in practice.

Publications

Peer-reviewed articles

Re-territorializing Climate Governance: The REDD+ Initiatives in the DR Congo
M. Gauthier — Fourth World Journal 24(2), 91–109, 2025.
DOI
Operationalizing Inclusion through Epistemic Justice: Lessons from Participatory 3D Modelling in the Itombwe Nature Reserve
M. Gauthier — Environmental Sciences and Sustainability, 2025.
DOI
Review: Colonial Bureaucracy and Contemporary Citizenship: Legacies of Race and Emergency in the Former British Empire (Y. Berda)
M. Gauthier — Allegra Lab, Settler Colonialism, Borders, and Empire Series, 2025.
Read

Work in progress

Knowing the Future, Reproducing the Present: How International Organizations Produce Anticipatory Inertia
Doctoral article In progress
Beyond Checking the Box: The Social Life of a Safeguards Checklist in Global Governance
Doctoral article In progress
Translating Indigenous Rights: A Typology of Social and Environmental Standards across International, Voluntary and Climate-Finance Regimes
Article In progress
Safeguarding Development
Book manuscript — proposal stage, EADI book series In preparation

Reports & action research (selection)

Beyond commitments: How can NDCs contribute to forest governance and resilient local communities?
Fern, 2021.
Green Book on participatory approaches in forest governance — Mpenzele, the communities in charge
Rainforest Foundation Norway (Regnskogfondet), 2020.
Lessons learned from the structuration and re-commitment of civil society and Indigenous peoples in the REDD+ process
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), 2019.
Saving the Rainforest 2.0
Rainforest Foundation Norway, 2018.
Mai-Ndombe: Will the REDD+ laboratory benefit indigenous peoples and local communities?
Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI), 2017.

Talks & conferences

Life of a Checklist: An Epistemic Device of Power
Swiss Chair International Relations Workshop, European University Institute, Florence — 2024.
How can a REDD+ regime complex address Indigenous peoples' rights?
Swiss Congress of Political Science, Geneva — 2022.
Working with communities through Environmental and Social Safeguards
Global Wildlife Programme Annual Conference, New York — 2021.
Mai-Ndombe: will the REDD+ laboratory benefit Indigenous peoples and local communities?
Oslo Tropical Forest Forum, Oslo — 2018.
Pioneering rights-based forest protection in the Congo Basin
Reducing Inequality in a Turbulent World, Stockholm — 2017.
Indigenous Peoples and Nature Conservation
IUCN World Conservation Congress, Honolulu — 2016.
Civil society engagement for climate in Central Africa
COP21, Pavilion of the International Organisation of La Francophonie, Paris — 2015.

Teaching

University teaching

Professional training (programmes designed & delivered)

Founder and lead trainer at CAP! (Centre d'Accompagnement du Plaidoyer). I design and run training on advocacy strategy, international governance, social and environmental safeguards, FPIC and grievance mechanisms. Clients include UNDP, IUCN, Fern, GIZ, Humanity & Inclusion, Change.org, Première Urgence Internationale, Sidaction, CIDSE and the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Public writing

COP après COP, les peuples autochtones sont de plus en plus visibles, mais toujours inaudibles
The Conversation, 2024.
Read

The Climate Justice Dispatch
Writing on climate justice, participation and Indigenous rights.

Read on Substack

Service & affiliations

Contact

Email: marine.gauthier@graduateinstitute.ch
Geneva Graduate Institute (IHEID), Geneva