Derek Armitage is an Professor in the Department of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo, and Director of the Environmental Change and Governance Group. His research interests centre on the human dimensions of environmental change and the formation of adaptive, multi-level governance systems. The problem of ‘fit’ is a central interest – how governance systems and institutions can better match the dynamics of biophysical systems, with a primary focus on aquatic contexts in the Arctic and Southeast Asia. His publications have appeared in such journals as Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Global Environmental Change, Ecology and Society, and International Journal of the Commons.

He is co-editor (with Fikret Berkes and Nancy Doubleday) of Adaptive Co-Management: Collaboration, Learning and Multi-Level Governance (UBC Press, 2007) and co-editor (with Ryan Plummer) of a volume on the relationship between adaptive capacity and environmental governance (Springer-Verlag, 2010). He has served as a consultant on a variety of projects for government agencies in Canada (Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, OMNR, Alberta Environment), the Global Environmental Facility (World Bank), ADB and IADB. He is a Senior Fellow, Earth Systems Governance project, Adjunct Professor – Natural Resources Institute (University of Manitoba), and past Working Group Leader – Oceans Management Research Network (Canada). He serves as Associate Editor for the integrative journal, Ecology and Society.