Ilona M. Otto holds the EarthDoc position within the Earth League Network and she is a member of the COPAN – Co-evolutionary Pathways Research Group at PIK. In her work Ilona analyses social-ecological systems, especially in the context of multi-level governance of natural resources, adaptation to climate change, and sustainability transformation. She is interested in combining various data bases, research methods, and stakeholders’ knowledge in investigating problems related to global environment changes, development, adaptation and sustainability. Dr. Otto holds PhD in resource economics and M.Sc. in sociology. She has just finalized her Habilitation (German higher education post-doctoral qualifications) at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Faculty of Life Sciences.