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University of Florida	School of Natural Resources and Environment
Vol. 1 Issue 1	Fall 2005

Peter Hildebrand

Faculty: International Focus

Peter Hildebrand draws on a lifetime of experiences to help students find ways to reduce poverty and increase food security in developing countries by improving small-scale farming systems.

"This research is critical because a large part of the world's population of farmers operate small-scale, family farms," Hildebrand said.

In addition to living and working abroad for 15 years in Pakistan, Colombia, El Salvador, and Guatemala, Hildebrand's international background encompasses work in more than 30 countries over 40 years. He has worked in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Europe and offers students first-hand experience.

Many of Hildebrand's American students are former Peace Corps volunteers who, along with his foreign students, are now conducting their graduate research in developing countries. Some of the research includes looking at ways to reduce pesticide use and enhance organic production, evaluating farms in the peripheries of protected areas such as wildlife refuges, studying the impact of market potential on biodiversity in home gardens, and researching the potential for connecting fragments of a biosphere reserve via small-farm biodiversity.

"These areas of study require people with broad knowledge rather than highly specialized training," Hildebrand said. "The School of Natural Resources and Environment provides students with the multidisciplinary background they will need."

Hildebrand joined the University of Florida faculty in 1980 and has served as director of UF International Programs for Agriculture and Natural Resources. He developed many of the basic ideas and approaches that are the foundation for farming systems research and extension methodology.

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