Dr Bouard is a specialist of Melanesian rural livelihoods, development studies, governance in rural development policies. After three years in the field of agricultural economics in South-Pacific (New-Caledonia) and Africa she turned to geography and social science to understand evolution of regional development policies faced by new stakes (economical crisis, decolonization, climate change, increase of mining exploitation). Since 2008, her research addresses issues related to the kanak livelihoods and evolution of development policies (place of local leaders, policy making, etc.). These skills stand at the intersection of development policies, global flows of development and environmental policies to answers emerging stakes as mining activities, community and sustainable development, etc.. Her recent research activities mainly focus on building methodologies and analysis on Kanak indigenous livelihoods: assessing the extent of agriculture and hunting/fishing activities for Kanak people, whether for commercial purposes or not? How are these activities linked to other social and professional activities (such as mining employment)? How are Melanesian livelihoods adjusting to changes, coping with pressures and maintaining the balance between needs for household food, income and social requirements? Furthermore, she worked on sustainable development, mining activities and local governance in New Caledonia. She produced 8 refereed journal articles and is the co-author of 4 books.