Elsa Varela is an Alexander von Humboldt senior research fellow at the working group of Social-Ecological Interactions Agricultural Systems since February 2023. She studied forestry at the Polytechnic University of Madrid. She holds a Master’s degree in Agroecology from the University of Cordoba. She completed her PhD in Sustainable Forest Management at the University of Valladolid on social preferences for improved wildfire prevention management systems in Spain.

Her research focuses on the socio-economic sustainability of traditional low input farming systems, aiming to contribute to the provision of ecosystem services to society while improving the livelihoods of rural dwellers. The core of her research is dedicated to assessing behaviours, preferences, values and attitudes of the stakeholders related to these systems, from farmers to citizens. Her expertise lays on behavioural economics, addressing societal preferences for public goods and non-market services provided by agricultural and forestry landscapes. She has experience in various EU research projects such as NEWFOREX (New ways of valuing forest externalities), SMALLFOREST (small forest patches in agricultural lands) or TREASURE (Diversity of local pig breeds and production systems for high quality traditional products and sustainable pork chains). She is currently working on assessing livestock farmers uptake of payment schemes for wildfire prevention and consumers preferences for meat from silvopastoral systems in Spain.