Mahesh Poudyal, PhD

Mahesh Poudyal, PhD

Research Fellow-Environmental Social Scientist

M.Poudyal@kent.ac.uk

Mahesh Poudyal is an environmental social scientist with over 15 years of policy-oriented research in developing countries in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa in socio-economic and institutional aspects of biodiversity conservation, natural resource management and utilisation, customary land and tree tenure systems, and gender, poverty and rural livelihoods. The focus of his work has primarily been on the poverty-environment nexus, with current research extending to the issues of environmental justice particularly in relation to forest governance and climate change mitigation policies. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) Programme Directorate until June 2018, where he was involved in ESPA’s effort to synthesise its research findings as the programme ended in 2018. Prior to joining ESPA, he held postdoctoral fellowships at Bangor University (2013-2017), Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (2011-2013) and University of York (2010-2011). Mahesh has a PhD in Environment and Politics from the University of York, UK (2010), Master of Resource Management (MRM) from Simon Fraser University, Canada (2005), and BSc Honours in Environment, Economics and Ecology from the University of York, UK (2002). He is also affiliated with the University for Development Studies in Ghana as an Adjunct Professor, and Centre for Ecology Law and Policy (CELP) in the UK as a Research Associate.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Journal Articles
Poudyal, M., O.S. Rakotonarivo, J.H. Razafimanahaka, N. Hockley, J.P.G. Jones (2018) “Household economy, forest dependency & opportunity costs of conservation in eastern rainforests of Madagascar”, Scientific Data 5: 180225 (2018).

Poudyal, M., J.P.G. Jones, O.S. Rakotonarivo, N. Hockley, J.M. Gibbons, R. Mandimbiniaina, A. Rasoamanana, N.S. Andrianantenaina (2018) “Who bears the cost of forest conservation?”, PeerJ 6:e5106.

Rafidimanantsoa, H., M. Poudyal, B. Ramamonjisoa, and J.P.G. Jones (2018). “Mind the gap: the use of research in protected area management in Madagascar.” Madagascar Conservation & Development 13 (1): 1-10.

Jones, J.P.G., R. Mandimbiniaina, R. Kelly, P. Ranjatson, B. Rakotojoelina, K. Schreckenberg, M. Poudyal (2018) “Human migration to the forest frontier: implications for land use change and conservation management”, Geo: Geography and Environment 2018;e00050.

Poudyal, M., B.S. Ramamonjisoa, N. Hockley, O.S. Rakotonarivo, J.M. Gibbons, R. Mandimbiniaina, A. Rasoamanana, J.P.G. Jones (2016) “Can REDD+ social safeguards reach the ‘right’ people? Lessons from Madagascar”, Global Environmental Change 37: 31-42.

Poudyal, M., G. Lidestav, P. Sandström, and S. Sandström (2015) “Supporting community governance in boreal forests by introducing participatory-GIS through action research”, International Journal of Action Research 11(3): 236-264.

Poudyal, M. (2011) “Chiefs and trees: tenures and incentives in the management and use of two multipurpose tree species in agroforestry parklands in Northern Ghana”, Society and Natural Resources 24(10): 1063-1077

Poudyal, M., K. Rothley, and D. Knowler (2009) “Ecological and economic analysis of poaching of the greater one horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) in Nepal”, Ecological Applications 19(7): 1693-1707.

Book/Book Chapters
Schreckenberg, K., G. Mace, and M. Poudyal (eds.) (2018) Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation: Trade-offs and Governance. London: Routledge.

Mace, G., K. Schreckenberg, and M. Poudyal (2018) “Ecosystem services for human wellbeing: trade-offs and governance”, in K. Schreckenberg, G. Mace and M. Poudyal (eds) Ecosystem Services and Poverty Alleviation: Trade-offs and Governance, pp 305-316. London: Routledge.

Cooke, P. and M. Poudyal (2014) “Local implications of forest tenure reform: section context and overview”, in R. Bluffstone and E.J.Z. Robinson (eds) Forest Tenure Reform in Asia and Africa: Local Control for Improved Livelihoods and Forest Management, pp 109-112. New York: RFF Press.

Poudyal, M., B. Adhikari, and J. Lovett (2014) “Community-Based Leasehold Forestry in Nepal: A Genuine Tenure Reform in Progress?”, in R. Bluffstone and E.J.Z. Robinson (eds) Forest Tenure Reform in Asia and Africa: Local Control for Improved Livelihoods and Forest Management, pp 196-211. New York: RFF Press.

Adhikari, B., D. Knowler, M. Poudyal, and W. Haider (2013) “Park-people conflicts, rhino conservation and poverty alleviation in Nepal”, in P.J.H. van Beukering et. al. (eds) Nature’s Wealth: The Economics of Ecosystem Services and Poverty, pp 37-55. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press..