Faculty bio | Research webpage | (541) 346-4974

Craig Kauffman is an academic expert in environmental politics, with a focus on climate change policy, sustainable development, and natural resource management; environmental law. He is particularly interested in the development of Earth Law and rights of nature, indigenous environmental law and practices, collaborative governance of forest and watershed ecosystems, and financing forest and watershed conservation. Craig uses this expertise to examine new, alternative global governance regimes, transnational networks, and the reasons global norms change. He is a member of the United Nations Knowledge Network on Harmony with Nature and a Participating Member in the UN General Assembly’s Interactive Dialogue on Harmony with Nature, tasked with providing recommendations on implementing the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. Craig’s research investigates how contestation between actors at the global and local levels determines policy responses to environmental challenges like climate change and ecosystem destruction, both domestically and internationally. He also has several projects relating to ecological economics. One analyzes the effect of international conservation aid on tropical deforestation worldwide. Another studies innovative, experimental financing mechanisms for conserving forest and watershed ecosystems.

Recent Media:
A fight brewing in Oregon could decide how we heat our homes and cook (The Washington Post, April 21, 2023)
What does rights of nature mean for development? (EastMojo, Jan. 8, 2023)
Books: The Politics of Rights of Nature, By Craig M. Kauffman and Pamela L. Martin (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Aug. 17, 2021)
UO experts weigh in on the COP26 UN climate summit (Around the O, Nov. 2, 2021)
In Oregon, the fight for local control upends Western norms (High Country News, Oct. 23, 2019)
Smells Like Inslee Spirit (Eugene Weekly, Aug. 1, 2019)
2018’s Greenest States (Wallet Hub, April 17, 2018)
An Indian court says glaciers and rivers are 'living entities.' Could the same approach work in the US? (The Christian Science Monitor, April 7, 2017)
Work on Earth law nets U.N. appointment for professor (Around the O, Oct. 13, 2016)