Born in 1972 in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India
Studied Ecology and Biological Sciences at the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and Microbiology, Chemistry and Zoology at Bangalore University
Focus
Conflict Resolution in Biological Systems
Project
Investigating the Reforestation Landscape: Pattern, Process, and the Role of Collective Action
The species-rich tropics exhibit significant dichotomies between patterns of development. While exclusionary approaches can sometimes be successful at conservation, they do not account for the social ramifications of prohibiting local inhabitants from access to forest resources. Much of the current controversy on the relative merits of participatory vs. exclusionist approaches can be traced to the different perspectives from which this problem is approached. In my two-month visit to the Wissenschaftskolleg, findings from individual case studies on reforestation will be integrated with theoretical frameworks from landscape ecology, political ecology and literature on the commons to develop a comparative, interdisciplinary framework which allows the evaluation of both social and natural factors associated with forest conservation. I am hoping to find linkages between these disciplinary perspectives that will help me define new categories and frameworks for analysis and create the foundation for a larger multi-case comparative research project in this area. Through an assessment of the various approaches and perspectives that have been used in the past to assess forest management strategies, this paper will also help to develop a broad-based "tool set" for this purpose which integrates aspects of methods from these different research disciplines, including satellite remote sensing, forest mensuration plots and social interviews.
Recommended Reading
Nagendra, Harini. "Using Remote Sensing to Assess Biodiversity." International Journal of Remote Sensing 22, 12 (2001): 2377-2400.
-. "Tenure and Forest Conditions: Community Forestry in the Nepal Terai." Environmental Conservation 29, 4 (2002): 530-539.
Nagendra, H., J. Southworth and C. Tucker. "Accessibility as a Determinant of Landscape Transformation in Western Honduras: Linking Pattern and Process." Landscape Ecology 18, 2 (2003): 141-158.
