María Fernanda López Sandoval is a senior lecturer at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, FLACSO-Ecuador. She studied her undergraduate degree in Geography at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador and did her PhD in Human Geography at the University of Regensburg (Germany) with a post-doctoral research stay at the University of Erlangen Nuremberg (Germany). She is a founding member of the Geographical Association of Ecuador and editor-in-chief of Iconos, a social science journal for Latin America. Her research interests stem from human geography, with a focus on socio-ecological systems, land use change with emphasis on Andean environments, territorial development and governance; mixed methods and interdisciplinary research on environmental and territorial issues. Her regional research interest lies in socio-ecological interactions in the Andean páramos. She is currently Academic Assistant Director of FLACSO, Ecuador and member of the scientific committee of CALAS, Andes.