My research interests bring together political geography, political ecology, and war studies. I have focused most of my work on the links between natural resources and armed conflicts, but also examined the political economy of war and reconstruction, the resource curse, corruption, as well as natural disasters and political crises.

Most of my fieldwork has been conducted in South East Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, but I also have a long-standing interest in Latin America. I tend to use historically grounded fieldwork approaches, occasionally using comparative and large-N quantitative methods.

While remaining targeted at an academic audience, I have also strived to make some of my work policy relevant. I am currently working on the governance of extractive sectors, food security, as well as violence and space.

Pr. Le Billon holds a joint appointment in the Department of Geography and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, Faculty of Arts.

2021

LE BILLON, P. 2021. Crisis conservation and green extraction: biodiversity offsets as spaces of double exception. Journal of Political Ecology 28(1): 864-888. doi: https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.2991

Le Billon, P., P. Lujala, D. Singh, V. Culbert, B. Kristoffersen. 2021. Fossil fuels, climate change, and the COVID-19 crisis: pathways for a just and green post-pandemic recovery. Climate Policy 21(3): 1347-1356. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2021.1965524

Le Billon, P., P. Lujala. S. A. Rustad. 2021. Transparency in Environmental and Resource Governance: Theories of Change for the EITI. Global Environmental Politics 21 (3): 124–146. https://doi.org/10.1162/glep_a_00610

Andrew, N., N.J. Bennett, P. Le Billon, S.J. Greene, A.M. Cisneros-Montemayor, S. Amongin, N. Gray, U.R. Sumaila. 2021. Oil, fisheries and coastal communities: A review of impacts on the environment, livelihoods, space and governance. Energy Research and Social Science 75: 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2021.102009

Bille Larsen, P., P. Le Billon, M. Menton, J. Aylwin, J. Balsiger, D. Boyd, M. Forst, F. Lambrick, C. Santos, H. Storey, S. Wilding. 2021. Understanding and responding to the environmental human rights defenders crisis: The case for conservation action. Conservation Letters 14(3). doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12777

Deberdt, R., P. Le Billon. 2021. Conflict minerals and battery materials supply chains: A mapping review of responsible sourcing initiatives. Extractive Industries and Society. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2021.100935

Prause, L., P. Le Billon. 2021. Struggles for land: Comparing resistance movements against agro-industrial and mining investment projects. Journal of Peasant Studies 48(5): 1100-1123. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2020.1762181

Satizábal, P., P. Le Billon, D. Belhabib, L. M. Saavedra‐Díaz, I. Figueroa, G. Noriega, N. J. Bennett. 2021. Ethical considerations for research on small‐scale fisheries and blue crimes. Fish and Fisheries 22(6): 1160-1166. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12590

Spijkers, J., A. Merrie, C. Wabnitz, M. Osborne, M. Mobjörk, Ö. Bodin, E. R. Selig, P. Le Billon, C.S. Hendrix, G. G. Singh, P. W. Keys, T. F. Morrison. 2021. Exploring the future of fishery conflict through narrative scenarios. One Earth 4(3): 386-396. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.02.004

Menton, M. and P. Le Billon. 2021. Environmental Defenders: Deadly Struggles for Life and Territory. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003127222

Ramos, A., P. Le Billon, C. Seagle, M. Madzwamuse, K. Walker Painemilla, I. Petriv, and L. Jauregui, eds. 2021. Policy Matters, Special Issue 22, Volumes I, II, III. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN.

2020

Le Billon, P., P. Lujala. 2020. Environmental and land defenders: Global patterns and determinants of repression. Global Environmental Change 65. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102163

BELHABIB, D., LE BILLON, P. and WRATHALL, D. J. 2020 ‘Narco‐Fish: Global fisheries and drug trafficking’ Fish and Fisheries https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12483

LE BILLON, P., SUJI, M., BANIYA, J., LIMBU, B., PAUDEL, D., RANKIN, K., RAWAL, N. and SHNEIDERMAN, S. 2020 ‘Disaster Financialization: Earthquakes, Cashflows and Shifting Household Economies in Nepal’ Development and Change 51(4), 939-969 https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12603

SHARP, K., ZERRIFFI, H. and LE BILLON, P. 2020 ‘Land scarcity, resettlement and food security: Assessing the effectof voluntary resettlement on diet quality in Malawi’ Food Security 12, 191–205 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-019-00979-y

BELHABIB, D. and LE BILLON, P. 2020 ‘Illegal Fishing as a Trans-National Crime’ Frontiers in Marine Science 7(162), 1-3 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00162

LE BILLON, P., ROA-GARCIA, M. C. and LÓPEZ-GRANADA, A. R. 2020 ‘Territorial peace and gold mining in Colombia: local peacebuilding, bottom-up development and the defence of territories’ Conflict, Security & Development 20(3), 303-333 https://doi.org/10.1080/14678802.2020.1741937

GAULIN, N. and LE BILLON, P. 2020 ‘Climate change and fossil fuel production cuts:assessing global supply-side constraints and policyimplications’ Climate Policy https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2020.1725409

PAUDEL, D., RANKIN, K. and LE BILLON, P. 2020 ‘Lucrative Disaster: Financialization, Accumulationand Postearthquake Reconstruction in Nepal’ Economic Geography 96(2), 137-160 https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2020.1722635

2019

SPIJKERS, J., SINGH, G., BLASIAK, R., MORRISON, T. H., LE BILLON, P. and ÖSTERBLOM, H. 2019 ‘Global patterns of fisheries conflict: Forty years of data’ Global Environmental Change 57 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.05.005

VON WYSOCKI, I. T. and LE BILLON, P. 2019 ‘Plastics at sea: Treaty design for a global solution to marine plastic pollution’ Environmental Science & Policy 100, 94-104 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.06.005

SINGLETON, R. L., ALLISON, E. H., GOUGH, C., KAMAT, V., LE BILLON, P.,  ROBSON, L. and SUMAILA, U. R. 2019 ‘Conservation, contraception and controversy: Supporting human rights to enable sustainable fisheries in Madagascar’ Global Environmental Change 59 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.101946

KAMAT, V. R., LE BILLON, P., MWAIPOPO, R. and RAYCRAFT, J. 2019 ‘Natural gas extraction and community development in Tanzania: Documenting the gaps between rhetoric and reality’ The Extractive Industries and Society 6(3), 968-976 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2019.03.011

BENNETT, N. J., CISNEROS-MONTEMAYOR, A. M., BLYTHE, J., SILVER, J. J., SINGH, G., ANDREWS, N., CALÒ, A., CHRISTIE, P., DI FRANCO, A., FINKBEINER, E. M., GELCICH, S., GUIDETTI, P., HARPER, S., HOTTE, N., KITTINGER, J. N., LE BILLON, P. […] SUMAILA, U. R. 2019 ‘Towards a sustainable and equitable blue economy’ Nature Sustainability 2, 991–993 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0404-1

LE BILLON, P. and KRISTOFFERSEN, B. 2019 ‘Just cuts for fossil fuels? Supply-side carbon constraints and energy transition’ Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X18816702

SHARP, K., LE BILLON, P. and ZERRIFFI, H. 2019 ‘Land reforms and voluntary resettlement: household participation and attrition rates in Malawi’ The Journal of Peasant Studies 46(5), 956-982  https://doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2018.1439928

BELHABIB, D., SUMAILA, R. and LE BILLON, P. 2019 ‘The fisheries of Africa: Exploitation, policy, and maritime security trends’ Marine Policy 101, 80-92  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2018.12.021

GRANT, H. and LE BILLON, P. 2019 ‘Growing Political: Violence, Community Forestry, and Environmental Defender Subjectivity’ Society and Natural Resources 32(7), 768-789  https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2019.1590669

TALLONI-ÁLVAREZ, N., SUMAILA, R., LE BILLON, P. and CHEUNG, W. 2019 ‘Climate change impact on Canada’s Pacific marine ecosystem: The current state of knowledge’ Marine Policy 104, 163-176  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.02.035

MIDDELDORP, N. and LE BILLON, P. 2019 ‘Deadly Environmental Governance: Authoritarianism, Eco-populism, and the Repression of Environmental and Land Defenders’ Annals of the American Association of Geographers 109(2), 324-337   https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2018.1530586

2018

LE BILLON, P. and DUFFY, R. 2018 ‘Conflict ecologies: Connecting political ecology and peace and conflict studies’ Journal of Political Ecology 25(1), 239-260  https://doi.org/10.2458/v25i1.22704

LIANG, K. and LE BILLON, P. 2018 ‘African migrants in China: space, race and embodied encounters in Guangzhou, China’ Social and Cultural Geography   https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2018.1514647

PAUDEL, D. and LE BILLON, P. 2018 ‘Geo-Logics of Power: Disaster Capitalism, Himalayan Materialities, and the Geopolitical Economy of Reconstruction in Post-Earthquake Nepal’ Geopolitics   https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2018.1533818

BELHABIB, D., DRIDI, R., PADILLA, A., ANG, M. and LE BILLON, P. 2018 ‘Impacts of anthropogenic and natural “extreme events” on global fisheries’ Fish and Fisheries 19(6), 1092-1109   https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12314

TIMKO, J., LE BILLON, P., ZERRIFI, H., HONEY-ROSÉS, DE LA ROCHE, I., GASTON, C., SUNDERLAND, T. and KOZAK, R. A. 2018 ‘A policy nexus approach to forests and the SDGs: tradeoffs and synergies’ Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 34, 7-12  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2018.06.004

LE BILLON, P. 2018 ‘Peacebuilding and white-collar crime in post-war natural resource sectors’ Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal 3(1), 80-97, https://doi.org/10.1080/23802014.2017.1365626

MASSÉ, F. and LE BILLON, P. 2018 ‘Gold mining in Colombia, post-war crime and the peace agreement with the FARC’ Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal 3(1), 116-134, https://doi.org/10.1080/23802014.2017.1362322

SPIEGEL, S. J., AGRAWAL, S., MIKHA, D., VITAMERRY, K., LE BILLON, P., VEIGA, M., KONOLIUS, K. and PAUL, B. 2018 ‘Phasing Out Mercury? Ecological Economics and Indonesia’s Small-Scale Gold Mining Sector’ Ecological Economics 144, 1-11, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.07.025

2017

SINGLETON, R. L., ALLISON, E. H., LE BILLON, P. and SUMAILA, U. R. 2017 ‘Conservation and the right to fish: International conservation NGOs and the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries’ Marine Policy 84, 22-32, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2017.06.026

CONDÉ, M. and LE BILLON, P. 2017 ‘Why do some communities resist mining projects while others do not?’ The Extractive Industries and Society 4(3), 681-697, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2017.04.009

LE BILLON, P. and SOMMERVILLE, M. 2017 ‘Landing capital and assembling ‘investable land’ in the extractive and agricultural sectors’ Geoforum 82, 212-224, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2016.08.011

RUSTAD, S. A., LE BILLON, P. and LUJALA, P. 2017 ‘Has the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative been a success? Identifying and evaluating EITI goals’ Resources Policy 51, 151-162, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2016.12.004