Dr. Ajith Chandran

Email: ajith.chandran@alumni.ubc.ca
Phone: +1 604-822-3450
Facebook: ajithchandran
Skype: ajith.chandran

 

Projects

PROJECT 1: Comparative study of Communication in Forest Management in India and Canada
PROJECT 2: Common knowledge, values and perceptions of sustainable forest management held by First Nations communities, http://www.forestry.ubc.ca/FNPerceptions/index.php
PROJECT 3: Socio-economic evaluation of forestry’s contribution to sustainable livelihood
PROJECT 4: Identification and refinement of management indicators for Yukon and application to State of Yukon Forests Report

 

Themes

Sustainable Forest Management, Communications, Criteria and Indicators, Community Forestry, Rural Livelihood

 

Interests

Community forestry, sustainable forest management, poverty and livelihood, horizontal communication, community based natural resource management, community values and perceptions, management indicators.

Read more about my current work in Branch Lines published by Faculty of Forestry UBC:
Branch Lines 2008 (Page 2 and 3)
Branch Lines 2009 (Page 19)
Branch Lines 2010 (Page 4)
UBC Graduate Program student profile (profiling Branch Lines 2008)
Press release, University of Bradford, UK, 2003

 

Academic Qualifications

Professional Courses

Ph.D. candidate with the Faculty of Forest Resources Management, University of British Colombia, Vancouver, Canada (since January 2008)

Environmental Management from Bradford Center for International Development (BCID), University of Bradford, Bradford, UK (2003)

Post Graduate Diploma in Forest Management (equivalent to Masters) from Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), Bhopal, India (1993) (FIRST CLASS)

B.Sc. Medical Technology from Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India (1989) (FIRST RANK)
· Elected General Secretary of the Medical Technology Students Union in PGIMER.

Skill and Awareness Building Courses

  • Discovering the Entrepreneur Within, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (2012)
  • STATA Management, CIFOR-PEN, Barcelona, Spain (2008)
  • Ethics in Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada  (2007)
  • Effective Leadership & Team Management Skills for Resource Managers, IIFM, Bhopal, India (2004)
  • Environment Management Information Systems, EIA Centre, University of Manchester, UK (2003)
  • European Union Policies and Programmes, European Commission, Brussels, Belgium (2003)
  • Geographic Information Systems for Research, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India (1995)
  • Participatory Rural Appraisal for Research, Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, India (1995)
  • Peoples Institution in Forest Management, CEE, Ahmedabad, India (1994)
  • Gender in Development, AKRSP(I), Ahmedabad, India (1993)

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

 

WORK EXPERIENCE

# Environment and Development consultant, January 2002 onwards till date

Key Assignments

  • University of British Columbia (Canada)
  • Identification of Management Indicators for Yukon and application to State of Yukon Forest reporting (ongoing)
  • Common knowledge, values and perceptions of sustainable forest management held by First Nations communities in British Columbia
  • Incorporation of perceptions and values of indigenous people in forest management in British Columbia; global literature review
  • BASIX (India) Guide the research on JFM and livelihood under the Rajasthan Livelihood Mission initiative
  • CIFOR (Indonesia) FAO/World Bank funded project to develop and implement a tool for monitoring poverty and poverty alleviation effects of JFM policy / strategies in forest fringe villages. This is envisioned as a “light” tool based on indicators to be managed and used by the Forest Department to monitor the effect of their forest management program on livelihoods. As a consultant, lead the research on forest-poverty linkages and designed an implementation strategy for conducting an extensive village survey (over 1300 households in 27 villages across 7 districts in Jharkhand, India)
  • Red R (India) livelihood and food security expert for flood assessment in Tamil Nadu
  • IMA Int’l (UK) training to Ethiopian delegates on Poverty, Rural Dev. and Food Security
  • Oxfam (GB) designing and formulating a Desert Livelihood & Food Security Programme
  • AKRSP (India) designing strategy for community development around Gir Lion Sanctuary, Gujarat
  • OXFAM (GB) evaluation of Coastal Andhra Disaster Preparedness Programme

 

 

# AGA KHAN FOUNDATION (AKF) INDIA, Rural Development Programme

1. Adviser (Forestry and Rural Development), January 2000 – December 2001

2. Resident Consultant (Forestry), September 1997 – December 1999

Key Assignments

Policy dialogue, represent AKF in government committees:

  • Indian Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) committee set up to prepare a National Joint Forest Management (JFM) Scheme, MoEF JFM Network member for policy discussions, State Level Working Group member for discussions on policy and implementation

Networking:

  • With national Ministries, state governments, NGOs and village federations in Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra in India

 Representing AKF (I) in policy and donor meetings of:

  • MoEF, Ministry of Rural Development, World Bank, Ministry of Agriculture, DFID, Indo German Bilateral Programme, UNDP-GEF, European Commission, Ford Foundation

Strategy development and evaluation missions:

  • JFM Cell initiative with Gujarat State Forest Department (Operationalising Policies). Strategy development and evaluation of Foundation’s Support Voluntary Organisations (SVO)

Research and studies, developing concept and giving technical advice:

  • Research on Panchayati Raj and JFM Institutions, Methodology to Assess Impact of Livelihood projects, Conflict Management in NRM, JFM Case Studies by field workers

Studentship development:

  • A pilot initiative started with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to develop linkages between academic and implementing institutions through student involvement in field studies

Organising number of workshops and giving technical advice:

  • National Rural Development Workshops, “Networking and Policy Advocacy” workshops and others

Drafting proposal and fund raising:

  • Member of drafting committee for a proposal on Sustainable Livelihoods (largest ever grant to an NGO by European Union, INR 1200 million in 2001) and “Management of Environmental Resources by Communities” for CIDA (INR 120 million approved) and others

 

# UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, UK, Research Fellow, May 1995 – May 1997

Key Assignments

  • Setting up a Research Unit in Gujarat to carry out extensive social, economic & silvicultural research
  • Data collection and analysis: Ethnographic research, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), group discussions, interview and data analysis
  • Liaisoning: NGOs, Forest Department, Forest Development Corporation and State Collectorates and Block level Administration
  • Extensive documentation: Reports and photographs. Wrote several unpublished articles on institutional issues, gender perspectives, forest dependency and others in JFM.
  • Organised dissemination workshops at village level with villagers and Forest Department and an international workshop for senior government and donor agencies.

 

 

# AGA KHAN RURAL SUPPORT PROGRAMME, Programme Organiser, GUJARAT, INDIA, May 1993 – May 1995

Key Assignments

 Co-ordination of forestry programme within the identified watershed programme areas

  • Negotiations with local forest and revenue department
  • Organising village institutions, conduct PRA and participatory planning
  • Extensive liaison with local government authorities and developing mechanisms for regular community-government interface
  • Gender mainstreaming at the local level and drafting a gender strategy for the programme
  • Supervision of staff and inter sectoral linkages with programmes like biogas, delineation, check-dam and pond construction, developing local enterprise
  • Initiating pilot activities and research on vermi-composting, teak nursery, horticulture development for medium farmers, NTFP development for poor, bamboo rhizome bank, vernacular newsletter
  • Resource person for the Training Course for senior IFS officers on Forest Tribal Interface: Experience sharing on tribal participation in Forestry Management held at Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai

 

 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS, tRAINING AND CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

  • Resource person for a Mid Career Training of senior Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers on Communication in Forest Management at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada (April 2012)
  • Poster presentation and an invited scholar at the 13th Biennial Conference of the International Association for Study of the Commons, IASC 2011 – Sustaining Commons: Sustaining our Future at Hyderabad, India (January 2011)
  • Session Co Organizer (and poster presenter) for session under Theme “Asia’s Forests for the Future”, IUFRO World Congress, Seoul, Korea (August, 2010)
  • Resource Person for IUFRO Pre Congress Training on “Traditional Forest Knowledge”  (August 2010)
  • Presented poster on “Changing Role of Communication in Community Forestry”, 13th World Forestry Congress, Buenos Aires, Argentina (October, 2009)
  • Part of two-member team for training on Participatory Rural Appraisal and Rapid Rural Appraisal for a research team at School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University, Canada. The video of the training is being further used for classroom discussions. (May, 2009)
  • CIFOR Poverty and Environment Network Meeting: Putting PEN to Paper, Bogor, Indonesia (March, 2009)
  • Working Group Meeting, Socio-Economic Extension Working Group, FORREX, Vancouver, Canada (2008 and 2009)
  • Co-presenter on ‘Indigenous values and perceptions of sustainable forest management: a gendered approach to Criteria and Indicators’ at the IUFRO International conference on Gender and Forestry. Dehradun, India. (November 2008)
  • National Workshop on Forest Tenure, UBC and SFM Network, Vancouver, Canada (June 2008)
  • Community Forests and Opportunity in the Face of Change: 2008 BCCFA Conference and AGM, Sechelt, Canada (May-June, 2008)
  • CIFOR Poverty and Environment Network Meeting, Barcelona, Spain (January, 2008)
  • International Congress: A Global Vision of Forestry in 21st Century, Toronto, Canada (October, 2007)
  • Diversifying Opportunities for Community Forests: 2007 BCCFA Conference and AGM, McBride, Canada (June, 2007)
  • Sustainable Forestry Meeting, SFM Network, Kamloops, Canada (May, 2007)
  • Workshop for perspective building and developing understanding among aboriginal groups, Coalmine Company and NSW Government, Newcastle, NSW, Australia. (September, 2005)
  • Session Organizer for parallel session under the theme ‘Advancing the Role of Communication, Education and Capacity Building in the Future of Forestry’, Session title: “Horizontal Communication: Combining Traditional Expressions in Communication Strategies”. IUFRO World Congress, Brisbane, Australia (August, 2005)
  • Paper presentation “Overview and Potential for People to People Education”, IUFRO World Congress, Brisbane, Australia (August, 2005)
  • Workshop on ‘Forest and Livelihoods: Methods to understand the role of forests in local livelihoods’, Brisbane, Australia, jointly hosted by Charles Darwin University, Australia, Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), Indonesia, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, and International Foundation of Science (IFS), Stockholm. Brisbane, Australia (August 2005)
  • IUFRO World Congress on Forest in Balance: linking tradition and technology, Brisbane, Australia. (August 2005)
  • Invited for the 17th Commonwealth Forestry Conference, ‘Forestry’s Contribution to Poverty Reduction‘. Chaired Session, “Building blocks and systems for good forest governance”. Colombo, Sri Lanka (February-March, 2005)
  • Presentation on “Village Forest Planning and ‘Horizontal Communication’: Experiences from North Gujarat, India” at the International workshops on “Strengthening the Movement at the Grassroots: Global Workshop for Community-based Forestry Practitioners” by National Network of Forest Practitioners and Pinchot Institute, at Montgomery, Alabama and Lake Tahoe, California. USA (September, 2004)
  • Co-authored paper “Communication Strategies in Forestry: Gujarat Experiences and a Country Overview”, submitted for ‘Communication strategies for Multiple Partner Involvement in Forestry Extension’ IUFRO Working Party S6.06-03 Extension Symposium, Orvieto, Italy (September 2004)
  • Research Paper “Policy Advocacy and Implementation: Role of Stakeholders”, presented at the Bradford Center for International Development, University of Bradford, UK (December, 2003)
  • Conceptualized and advised a publication, “Initiatives and Challenges in Forest Management: Case Studies from Western India”, AKF (India), (2002)
  • “Activating a Policy: Joint Forest Management Cell in Gujarat”, contribution to ‘Enriching Experiences: Successful Practices in Community-based Natural Resource Management, Vol1 Brief 8’, AKF (India) (February, 2001)
  • Contributed in Jeffery, et al., ‘Branching Out’. Oxford University Press, New Delhi (2001)
  • “JFM Cell” in ‘Van Sahyog’, a national newsletter by Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development (SPWD) (2000)
  • Contributed in Jeffery et al., ‘A New Moral Economy For India’s Forests? Discourses of Community and Participation’, Sage Publications, New Delhi (1999)
  • “Divisional Level Working Groups: A Strategy for Improving JFM Effectiveness”, discussion paper circulated and presented to donors, government, academicians and practitioners, AKF (India) (April 1998)
  • Paper presentation, “Biodiversity at Crossroads”, as lead speaker, International Biodiversity Day Celebrations organized by the Department of Science and Technology, Lakshadweep Administration, Kavaratti, Lakshadweep Islands, India (1997). This was presided by Union Minister for Environment and Forests, and attended by elected representatives and senior government officials.
  • Paper on “Connecting the Threads: Past, Present and Future of JFM”, presented at the International Workshop on Social Construction of Community Participation in JFM, by the University of Edinburgh, at IIC, New Delhi (May 1997)

 

committee membership

Member of Socio Economic Working Group of FORREX, Vancouver, Canada, 2008 to present
Member of Poverty and Environment Network research by CIFOR, Indonesia, 2007 to present
Member of the JFM Network Committee constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest, India, 2000-2001
Member of the Committee set up for formulating the National JFM Scheme by MoEF 2000
Member, National Network on Joint Forest Management (JFM). 1991- 2001
Member of the State Level Working Group on JFM in Gujarat, India 1999-2001
Member, sub group on policy formulation for JFM in the National Network on Joint Forest Management. 1999-2001

 

Awards, Grants and Scholarships

. Donald S. McPhee Fellowship
. University of British Columbia PhD Tuition Fee Award
. University of British Columbia International Partial Tuition Scholarship
. International Foundation for Science (IFS) grant for research
· Chevening Scholarship, Foreign & Commonwealth Office (UK), British Council for studies in UK
· Winrock Foundation Travel Grant for travel to UK
· CIFOR-IFS Travel Grant to Brisbane, Australia
· CIFOR Travel Grant for travel to Gujarat, India
· CIFOR Travel Grant for travel to Barcelona, Spain
. Sir Ratan Tata Scholarship for international travel to US and Canada
· SIDA and Ministry of Environment and Forests (India) Fellowship for post graduate studies
· Ministry of Health (India) Fellowship for graduate studies in Medical Technology

 

extra curricular

Contributor to www.katerva.org for its activities on identifying the most promising initiatives on sustainability.
Founder and editor of www.infomeets.com for international workshop updates.
Photography and video shooting. Interest in nature and indigenous nature related rituals and ceremonies
Coral Reef snorkeling. Undertook two expeditions to Lakshadweep Coral Islands, Arabian Sea