Christine Beitl

  • Graduate Program Coordinator, Anthropology and Environmental Policy
  • Fulbright Student Program Advisor
  • Cooperating Faculty Member, School of Marine Sciences & School of Economics
  • Affiliated Faculty Member, Ecology and Environmental Sciences

Research Interests

  • Sustainability Science
  • Human Ecology
  • Environmental Anthropology
  • Coastal/Fisheries Anthropology
  • Environmental Governance and Policy
  • Research Design and Methods

Research Projects

  • 2023 – present. “Historical Uses of the Proposed Area of Interest for the Maine Offshore Wind Research Array.”  Maine Department of Marine Resources.
  • 2023 – 2025. NNA Research: Rapid Arctic change and its implications for fisheries and fishing communities of the western North Atlantic” (NSF-NNA # 2220564; Damien Brady, Joshua Stoll, Christine Beitl.
  • 2023 – present. NRT: Ecosystem science in the face of rapid ocean change: a convergence approach –  National Science Foundation Research Traineeship Program, (NSF #2244117).   Senior Personnel.
  • 2019 – present Consultant on NSF-IBSS-L#1743019, “The Effect of Social Networks on Inequality: A Longitudinal Cross-Cultural Investigation.” (PI: Jeremy Koster). University of Cincinnati.
  • Understanding Ecological, Social, and Economic Aspects of Bycatch and Building Stakeholder Alliances in the Gulf of Maine Lobster Fishery

Resources

Student Opportunities
Inquiries are encouraged from self-motivated prospective graduate students broadly interested in human ecology and/or coastal and marine anthropology.

Degrees

  • University of Georgia, Ph.D. (Ecological and Environmental Anthropology)
  • Florida International University, M.A. (Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Environmental Studies)
  • Ohio University, B.A. (Spanish)

Courses

  • ANT 102: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology (The Diversity of Cultures)
  • ANT 250: Conservation Anthropology
  • ANT 400: Anthropological Theory
  • ANT 553: Institutions and Common Pool Resources (Commons Governance and Global Change)
  • ANT 555: Resource Management in Cross Cultural Perspective
  • ANT 597: Research Design and Methods
  • ANT 597: Coastal and Marine Anthropology

Profile:

Christine Beitl is a faculty member in the University of Maine’s Department of Anthropology. Her research within the Department of Anthropology broadly looks at the interactions between socio-political, ecological, and economic systems. Her research aims to understand the cultural values driving change in ocean and coastal policies, and the distribution of benefits and risks in coastal development, including aquaculture and offshore wind. Her ethnographic research has included qualitative and quantitative methods, GIS, and the integration of social and environmental datasets to understand the role of collective action in mangrove forest conservation and sustainable small-scale fisheries in Ecuador. More recent research in Maine has focused on climate resilience, local ecological knowledge in fisheries, and offshore wind.

Prior to working at the University of Maine, Beitl taught at both the University of Georgia and Emory University. She was also awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for research in Ecuador.

Funding for Beitl’s research has come from the National Science Foundation, the Maine Department of Marine Resources,  the Maine EPSCoR-NSF SSI, and the Wenner Gren Foundation, among others. Her work has been published in Human Ecology, World Development, the Journal of Political Ecology, and the International Journal of the Commons.

Selected Publications

Chávez-Páez, W., Beitl, C. M. (2025). Who has the power? Comparative insights on conflict management through community justice in Ecuador’s mangrove co-management. Environmental Development. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101263.

zu Ermgassen, Philine, Worthington, Thomas A., Gair, Jonathan R., Garnett, E.E., Mukherjee, Nibedita, Longley-Wood, K., Nagelkerken, I., Abrantes, K., Aburto-Oropeza, O., Acosta, A., da Rocha, A.R., Araujo, Ronald Baker,  Adam Barnett,  Christine M. Beitl,  Rayna Benzeev,  Justin Brookes, Gustavo A. Castellanos-Galindo, Ving Ching Chong,  Rod M. Connolly, Marília Cunha-Lignon,  Farid Dahdouh-Guebas,  Karen Diele, Patrick G. Dwyer,  Daniel A. Friess, Thomas Grove,  M. Enamul Hoq,  Chantal Huijbers,  Neil Hutchinson, Andrew F. Johnson,  Ross Johnson,  Jon Knight, Uwe Krumme,  Baraka Kuguru,  Shing Yip Lee, Aaron Savio Lobo,  Blandina R. Lugendo, Jan-Olaf Meynecke, Cosmas Nzaka Munga, Andrew D. Olds, Cara L. Parrett, Borja G. Reguero, Patrik Rönnbäck, Anna Safryghin, Marcus Sheaves, Matthew D. Taylor, Jocemar Tomasino Mendonça, Nathan J. Waltham, Matthias Wolff,  Mark D. Spalding. (2025). Mangroves support an estimated annual abundance of over 700 billion juvenile fish and invertebrates. Commun Earth Environ 6, 299 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02229-w 

Ashik Ur Rahman, M., Beitl, C.M. The Role of Collective Action and Identity in the Preservation of Irrigation Access in Dacope, Bangladesh. Sustainability 16(15), 6279; https://doi.org/10.3390/su16156279

Pollnac, R., Beitl, C. M., Viña, M.A., Gaibor, N. Perceptions of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and La Niña Shape Fishers’ Adaptive Capacity and Resilience. Social Sciences. 13(7), 356; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci13070356 

Cavaleri Gerhardinger, L., Moreira Moura, G. G., McKinley, E., Christie, P., Narchi, N. E., Colonese, A. C., Beitl, C.M., Puniwai Hawaiʻinuiākea, N., Costa de Oliveira, C., da Silveira, I., Harry, D., Early Capistrán, M. M. (2024). A Call for a Cultural Shift in Oceanography. Coastal Management, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/08920753.2024.2370214

Beitl, C.M., & Hiltonsmith, J. (2023). Fishing Industry Perspectives on the Development of Offshore Wind. Maine Policy Review, 32(2), 112-120. https://doi.org/10.53558/LLDT8674 

Poto, M., Kuhn, A., Tsiouvalas, A., Hodgson, K., Treffenfeldt, M., Beitl, C. (2022). Knowledge Integration and Good Marine Governance: A Multidisciplinary Analysis and Critical Synopsis. Human Ecology. 50. 1-15. 10.1007/s10745-021-00289-y.

Nemer E. Narchi and Christine M. Beitl (eds.) América Profunda: visiones y convergencias en la oceanografía social del continente. Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacán. ISBN 978-607-544-166-5

zu Ermgassen, P., Castellanos-Galindo, G., & Beitl, C. (2020). Fishers who rely on mangroves: Modelling and mapping the global intensity of mangrove-associated fisheries. Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science. 10.1016/j.ecss.2020.106975.

Beitl, C.M., Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran, P., Bravo, M. Ortega-Pacheco, D., Bird, K., (2019). New Valuation for Defying Degradation:  Visualizing Mangrove Forest Dynamics and Local Stewardship with Remote Sensing in Coastal Ecuador. Geoforum. 98: 123-132. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.10.024

Moritz, M., Behnke, R., Beitl, C.M., Bliege Bird, R., Morais Chiaravalloti, R., Clark, J.K., Crabtree, S.A., Downey, S., Hamilton, I.M., Chian Phang, S., Scholte, P., Wilson, J., (2018). Emergent Sustainability in Open Property Regimes. Proceedings for the National Academy of Sciences. 115(51): 1285-12867. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1812028115

Narchi, N., Cariño, M., Mesa-Jurado, M.A. Espinoza-Tenorio, A., Olivos-Ortiz, A., Early Capistrán, M.M., Morteo, E., Ochoa, Y., Beitl, C.M., Martinez Diaz, T.E., Cervantes, O., Nava Bravo, H.H. Spalding, A. K., Grace-McCaskey, C.A., Corona, N., Moreira Moura, G.G., (2018). El CoLaboratorio de la Oceanografía Social: Espacio Plural para la Conservación Integral de los Mares y las Sociedades Costeras. Sociedad y Ambiente. 18: 285-301. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31840/sya.v0i18.1888

Farr, E.R., Stoll, J.S., Beitl, C.M., (2018). Effects of fisheries management on local ecological knowledge. Ecology & Society. 23 (3): 15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10344-230315

Ebel, S. A., Beitl, C.M., Runnebaum, J., Alden, R., Johnson, T. (2018). “The power of participation: Challenges and opportunities for facilitating trust in cooperative fisheries research in the Maine lobster fishery.” Marine Policy 90: 47-54. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2018.01.007

Beitl, C.M. (2018) Book Review of Lewis, Tammy L. (2016) Ecuador’s Environmental Revolutions: Ecoimperialists, Ecodependents, and Ecoresisters. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, viii + 282pp.

Beitl, C.M., (2017). Decentralized Mangrove Conservation and Territorial Use Rights in Ecuador’s Mangrove-Associated Fisheries. Bulletin of Marine Science. 93(1):117-136. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5343/bms.2015.1086

Beitl, C.M. (2016). The Changing Legal and Institutional Context for Recognizing Nature’s Rights in Ecuador: Mangroves, Fisheries, Farmed Shrimp, and Coastal Management since 1980. Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy.

Beitl, C.M., (2016). Decentralized Mangrove Conservation and Territorial User Rights in Ecuador’s Mangrove-Associated Fisheries. Bulletin of Marine Science. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5343/bms.2015.1086

Stoll, J.S., Beitl, C.M., Wilson, J.A., (2016). How Access to Maine’s Fisheries Has Changed over a Quarter Century: The Cumulative Effects of Licensing on Resilience. Global Environmental Change. 37:79-91. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959378016300073

C.M. Beitl, “Mobility in the Mangroves: Catch Rates, Daily Decisions, and Dynamics of Artisanal Fishing in a Coastal Commons,” Applied Geography (in press).

C.M. Beitl, “Navigating Over Space and Time: Fishing Effort Allocation and the Development of Customary Norms in an Open-Access Mangrove Estuary in Ecuador,” Human Ecology 42, no. 3 (2014): 395-411.

C.M. Beitl, “Adding Environment to the Collective Action Problem: Individuals, Civil Society, and the Mangrove-Fishery Commons in Ecuador,” World Development 56 (2014): 93-107.

C.M. Beitl, “Shifting Policies, Access, and the Tragedy of Enclosures in Ecuadorian Mangrove Fisheries: Towards a Political Ecology of the Commons,” Journal of Political Ecology 19 (2012): 94-113.

C.M. Beitl, “Cockles in Custody: The Role of Common Property Arrangements in the Ecological Sustainability of Mangrove Fisheries on the Ecuadorian Coast,” International Journal of the Commons 5, no. 2 (2011): 485-512.