Christoph Schunko, Assoc.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.

Christoph Schunko, Assoc.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.

Working Group Knowledge Systems and Innovation

Institute of Organic Farming
Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems
University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna
Gregor-Mendel-Strasse 33, 1180 Vienna

Phone: (+43)1/47654-93348
E-Mail: christoph.schunko(at)boku.ac.at

Research Information System (Projects, Publications, Knowledge transfer, Media, Lectures, Supervised theses)
Courses

ResearchGate
Google scholar
ORCID

Research interest

My research focuses on local knowledge about wild plant gathering in organic farming and beyond. This includes research about the

  1. biocultural diversity of wild plant uses;
  2. value chains of (organic) wild plant products;
  3. ecological and socio-political sustainability of (organic) wild plant gathering;
  4. cultivation and domestication of wild plants.

I am thereby interested in European and non-European territories, rural, suburban and urban regions and commercial and non-commercial wild plant gathering. In addition, I work on the advancement of research designs and methods including participatory research and Citizen Science.

Short Curriculum Vitae

  • 2023-ongoing Assoc. Prof. at IFÖL / BOKU
  • 2021-2022 Visiting scholar at ICTA, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain
  • 2017-2023 Tenure track position at IFÖL / BOKU
  • 2014-2017 University assistant at IFÖL / BOKU
  • 2012-2016 Dissertation at BOKU
  • 2012-2015 Synthesis officer and project manager in EU FP7 funded COMBIOSERVE project at IFÖL / BOKU
  • 2009-2011 Project assistant at IFÖL / BOKU
  • 2006-2009 Master Studies in Organic Agriculture at BOKU and Iowa State University (ISU), USA
  • 2003-2006 Bachelor studies in Agricultural Sciences at BOKU and Ecole d’Ingénieurs de Purpan (EIP), France

Research Projects

Completed

  • Local Indicators of Climate Change Impacts: The Contribution of Local Knowledge to Climate Change Research – LICCI
  • Gathering wild foods in urban areas – mixed-methods study on ecological and socio-political sustainability of gathering in Vienna – UrbanWildFoods
  • Gathering of wild plant species in organic farming – OrganicWildGathering
  • Assessing the effectiveness of community-based management strategies for biocultural diversity conservation – COMBIOSERVE
  • Monitoring of Biocultural Diversity im Biospärenpark Großes Walsertal – BioCultural Diversity Monitoring
  • Dynamics of Local Knowledge – Tyrol

Recent publications

Reyes-García, V., García-Del-Amo, D., Porcuna-Ferrer, A., Schlingmann, A., Abazeri, M. et al. (2024). Local studies provide a global perspective of the impacts of climate change on Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Sustainable Earth Reviews, 7:1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42055-023-00063-6

Reyes-García, V., García-del-Amo, D., Álvarez-Fernández, S., Benyei, P., Calvet-Mir, L., et al. (2024). Indigenous Peoples and local communities report ongoing and widespread climate change impacts on local social-ecological systems. Communications Earth & Environment, 5:29. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01164-y

Fuchs, A., Vogl C.R., Schunko, C. (2024). Counteracting land abandonment: local adaptation strategies to climate change impacts of alpine farmers in Eastern Tyrol, Austria. In Reyes-García, V. et al: Routledge Handbook of Climate Change Impacts on Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, Chapter 17. Routledge: Oxon, New York.  

Molnár, Z., Fernández-Llamazares, Á., Schunko, C., Teixidor-Toneu, I., Jarić, I., Díaz-Reviriego, I., Ivascu, C., Babai, D., Sáfián, L., Karlsen, P., Dai, H., & Hill, R. (2023). Social justice for traditional knowledge holders will help conserve Europe’s nature. Biological Conservation, 285, 110190. doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2023.110190