People & Partners

Laura Pereira is a Professor in Sustainability Transformations and Futures at the Global Change Institute at Wits University and a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University.

She is an interdisciplinary sustainability scientist, having been trained in ecology, law, zoology and human geography. She completed her DPhil in Geography at Oxford University in 2012, before working internationally at various institutions including the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University, City University of London and Utrecht University.

Laura is an Earth Commissioner and sits on the IPBES Task Force on scenarios and models. She was a review editor for the IPBES Values assessment and is a lead author for the IPBES Transformative change assessment. She was a contributing author to the Africa chapter of the IPCC’s 6th Assessment report and has been both a coordinating lead author and a lead author for various UNEP GEO Assessments. She is interested in the interface between indigenous and local knowledges and innovation, the role of futures techniques and visioning in enabling transformative change and developing innovative methods for knowledge co-production in global South contexts.