Suneetha Subramanian

Transdisciplinary approaches in socio-ecological research, 15 October - 09:00 - 10:00 am

Suneetha has been working on aligning policy goals related to conservation and development with local priorities since over a decade and a half. Affiliated with the United Nations University since 2006 in various capacities, she has focused her research on assessing the dependence of human wellbeing to ecosystems and biodiversity and consequent impacts on account of changes; on harnessing multiple knowledge systems in finding endogenous solutions; on equity in transactions related to accessing biological resources and in sharing benefits; identifying opportunities for cross-sectoral implementation of development and environmental activities; and facilitating relevant capacity development activities for multiple stakeholders from policymakers to local communities to enable informed decision making. More recently she has been actively engaged in contributing to various knowledge products of the IPBES,including the Asia Pacific Regional assessment, the Global Assessment and the ongoing assessment on multiple values related to biodiversity.

Nityanand Jayaraman

Climate Change V. Land-use Change: A case for Open Earth Economies Inspired by the Poromboke, 15 October - 18:00- 19:00 pm

Nityanand Jayaraman is a Chennai, India-based writer and social activist, and a member of the Chennai Solidarity Group – a collective that fights environmental injustice and discrimination. As competition for access to natural resources pits powerful corporations against farmers, fishers and indigenous people in violent conflict, Nityanand locates himself on the side of the latter to ensure that rule of law and democracry are not buried at the altar of commerce.

An engineer turned journalist and activist, Nityanand describes himself as a solidarity worker who generates city-based support for community struggles against corporate crime and solidarity against government high-handedness in dealing with such struggles. Relying on volunteer energy and local resources, Nityanand's group has played a critical role in expanding democratic spaces for community struggles, including the campaign for justice in Bhopal, the campaign against Unilever's mercury pollution in Kodaikanal, the fisherfolk's struggle to save the Ennore wetlands in Chennai and the protests by residents of Tuticorin against UK multinational Vedanta's polluting Sterlite copper smelt

Mordecai Ogada

The need for ‘Human Rigour’ in Wildlife Conservation Study and the Danger of  Losing Social Sustainability,17 October  - 09:00 - 10:00 am

Dr. Mordecai Ogada is a carnivore ecologist and conservation writer who has been involved in conservation policy and practice for the last 19 years in Kenya and other parts of Africa, mainly on human-wildlife conflict mitigation and carnivore conservation. Dr. Ogada’s professional work has included research and teaching conservation leadership at Colorado State University. Much of his energy has been devoted to the area of community based conservation, wildlife policy and wetlands ecology.

He has worked for over 15 years in the Conservation civil society conservation practice in Kenya. Over the last three years, Mordecai has been engaged in examining the policy problems and prejudices that underlie the challenges experienced in wildlife conservation, particularly in the global South. These issues form the central theme of ‘The Big Conservation Lie’ a book focused on Kenya co-authored with John Mbaria. He is currently the Executive Director of Conservation Solutions Afrika, a natural resource management consultancy based in Nanyuki. Dr. Ogada is currently consulting for Survival International on conservation and human rights in East and Central Africa.

Prerna Singh Bindra

Voices in the Wilderness: Conservation in today’s India,17 October - 18:00- 19:00 pm

Prerna Singh Bindra has been at the forefront of the battle to conserve India’s wildlife for over a decade. She was a member of India’s National Board for Wildlife and its core Standing Committee (2010-13). She has also served on the State Board for Wildlife, Uttarakhand. Her work has contributed to the creation of new Protected Areas in the state.

Prerna’s primary focus is protecting wildlife habitats and critically endangered species, and is particularly interested on the impact of development and infra on natural habitats, and voluntary relocation from PAs. Her core expertise is policy, communications and advocacy.She is a widely published author with over 1,500 pieces on nature and wildlife in popular media.Prerna’s book The Vanishing: India’s Wildlife Crisis published by Penguin India was released in June 2017. Her other release in the same year is When I Grow up I Want to be a Tiger, a gorgeously illustrated book for children. She has co-edited Wild treasures: Reflections on Natural World Heritage Sites in Asia, published by the Wildlife Institute of India in May 2019. he is an alumni of M.Phil in Conservation Leadership, University of Cambridge.Prerna is based in Gurgaon but her heart, she says, resides in the forest.

Yadvendradev Jhala

Conserving Large Carnivores in India: Role of Science,18 October - 09:00 - 10:00 am

Wildlife has been my passion since my early childhood. I studied zoology for my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Bombay. For my Ph.D. research at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, I used optimization to manage the conflicting habitat needs of two endangered species that interacted as prey (blackbuck) and predator (wolf). In 1991, I obtained a postdoctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution and studied reproductive energetics using doubly labelled water. Later, I taught courses in wildlife conservation and management for the Smithsonian Institution in China, Tanzania, Malaysia, India and the U.S.A. I joined the Wildlife Institute of India in 1993 and have since pursued an active research programme on Indian carnivores. I have supervised research projects on the Indian wolf, striped hyaena, golden jackal, Indian fox, Asiatic lion and tiger using VHF, GPS, satellite and recapture telemetry. I supervise the Conservation Genetics Laboratory at WII. I teach Biometry and Population Ecology for the master’s course in wildlife science and Applied Population Ecology for the diploma programme in wildlife management. I continue to be a research associate of the Smithsonian Institution and a member of the IUCN SSC Specialist Group for Wolves and Canids.

Angelique Songco

NOT ABOUT MANAGING FISH:A Case Study from the Tubbataha Reefs,18 October - 18:00- 19:00 pm 

After serving in the Armed Forces of the Philippines for five (5) years, Angelique Songco worked as a scuba diving instructor in the dive shop she owns with her partner of 37 years. She worked as a diving professional on liveaboards in the Tubbataha Reefs for ten (10) years. With like-minded individuals she established a local environmental non-government organization for the purpose of supporting the conservation of Tubbataha. She represented the NGO in the Tubbataha Protected Area Management Board, which hired her as park manager in 2001.

At the age of 50, she finished her master’s degree in Environment, Development and Policy from the University of Sussex, England. She has been named Hero of the Environment by WWF-Philippines twice. Under her leadership, Tubbataha was named one of the three best-managed no-take marine protected areas in the world. Her official title is Protected Area Superintendent, but she is better known for her unofficial designation as Mama Ranger of Tubbataha. Angelique is a mother of two.