David Matarrita-Cascante
David Matarrita-Cascante, Ph.D., associate professor, utilizes expertise in rural and natural resource sociology to seek solutions to natural resource concerns while promoting sustainable, local natural resource management.
“Most of my work focuses on the study of how changes in rural natural resource-dependent communities affect citizens and whether community development efforts minimize or mitigate such impacts,” Matarrita-Cascante said.
Much of his research has focused on Latin America, broadening natural resource sociology literature to include a more comprehensive perspective from developing nations.
“Because I focus on what organized residents can do themselves to solve natural resources and environmental problems, my work has broadened the practical implications of the field, which tended to focus on policy or institutional solutions,” he said.
Much of his work focuses on amenity migration, which is a phenomenon where urban residents move seasonally or permanently to rural areas. These individuals are seeking locations to live based on various criteria, such as an attractive landscape, favorable climate, and interesting social or cultural amenities.
“Historically, this migration from urban to rural areas has focused on tourism-based towns,” he said. “However, we are now seeing migration to agricultural and ranching-based communities.”
He said this trend was greatly amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic and is now seen across Texas and other U.S. states.
According to the USDA Economic Research Service, from 2020–2021, more people moved from urban to rural areas, resulting in a 0.07% decline in urban population and a 0.43% gain for rural areas because of net domestic migration.
Because many of these ex-urban landowners have little to no land management experience, they are often unaware of existing resources or practices needed to support a healthy landscape.
Matarrita-Cascante said this can result in less than favorable implications for natural resources.
To address this, Matarrita-Cascante and other members of RWFM recently led a series of free workshops across the state to connect these ex-urban landowners with land management resources and introduce land management agency personnel to the unique needs and potential land management goals of these new landowners.
In addition to introducing these ex-urban landowners to management tools and available resources, focus groups conducted through the workshops enabled Matarrita-Cascante and his team to better understand these new landowners’ views, thoughts, and motivations related to land management, as well as their perceptions regarding management tools like fire and grazing.
“This human aspect of rangeland management is so important,” he said. “Things like values, perceptions and cultural aspects influence their decisions of how to steward the land — it’s all connected.
“Ultimately, we can have all the natural sciences knowledge in the world, but if people do not want to put that knowledge into practice, goals like conservation or smart climate practices will not be achieved.”
Matarrita-Cascante’s research contributions have been nationally and internationally recognized. He has received invitations to lecture at the University of Texas, Ohio State University, Chonnam University in South Korea, El Zamorano in Honduras, the University of Tokyo, and conducts recurring lectures at the Universidad de la Frontera in Chile, the Universidad del Valle in Colombia, and the University of Costa Rica.
He serves as an associate researcher at the International Centre for Patagonian Studies; is a member of the scientific committee for Praxis, Educación, y Pedagogía at Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia; and is a member of the Board of Directors at the International Amenity Migration Centre.
In 2022, he hosted the International Symposium for Society and Natural Resources in Costa Rica, which brought together academics from all over the World to discuss natural resources management issues.
Additionally, Matarrita-Cascante has served on more than a dozen departmental committees at Texas A&M, received two departmental teaching awards, and served on 38 graduate student committees.
Altogether, his work is helping move many of the department’s and college’s goals forward, focusing on the human element of the equation.
“I think part of the reason why I’m so passionate about my work is because, to a large extent, it's in my blood,” Matarrita-Cascante said. “I come from a line of people who worked the land while trying to make it better and fulfill their own needs.”
