Wei Zhang is a Senior Research Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit, and the co-lead of the CGIAR Research Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems (Mitigate+). She conducts and leads policy-relevant research on the intersection between agriculture, development, nature/environment, and climate change. Her research interests include the economics and behavior of ecosystem service management, nature-based/nature-positive solutions to sustainable intensification, participatory action research, and community-based natural resources management (NRM), including governance of common pool resources, and using behavioral experiments (games) for experiential learning about collective action and institutional arrangements, with gender and climate change as cross-cutting issues. Wei has extensive experience leading and implementing multidisciplinary research projects in Africa, South Asia, and East and Southeastern Asia. She has also engaged actively in a number of global research initiatives (for example, TEEB for Agriculture and Food and Bridge Collaborative) and working groups (for example, SESYNC and SNAPP).

A Chinese national, Wei joined IFPRI as a postdoc fellow. Prior to that, she worked in the Environment Department at the World Bank on payment for environmental services. Wei earned a PhD in Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University with a specialization in Environmental and Resource Economics. She has an MA in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont and a BA in International Economics from Renmin University of China.